GOODlife Magazine June 2017
Featuring Steven Curtis Chapman on this month's cover, GOODlife Magazine is a premier Christian print and digital magazine. We capture readers with captivating articles, including regular interviews with prominent leaders and artists and topics such as family, business, travel, events, and so much more!
Featuring Steven Curtis Chapman on this month's cover, GOODlife Magazine is a premier Christian print and digital magazine. We capture readers with captivating articles, including regular interviews with prominent leaders and artists and topics such as family, business, travel, events, and so much more!
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Diving into the fight<br />
against cancer with<br />
Malena Hankins<br />
“My biggest swims<br />
are not the ones<br />
that give me<br />
bigger or better<br />
medals, but the<br />
ones that are<br />
more meaningful<br />
and will help the<br />
community. In this<br />
case especially, it<br />
will help kids with<br />
cancer.”<br />
It’s an early spring morning... A cool mist still covers the ground, waiting<br />
for the sunrise to begin waking a mostly sleeping city. But among the stillness at<br />
5am, there are a few ambitious souls making the most of the early morning hours.<br />
Gliding through the frigid waters of an open pool, Malena Hankins can be found<br />
putting in her hours of dedicated training. This consistent discipline she subjects<br />
herself to has not come back to her void. With over 50 medals and a continually<br />
increasing sense of purpose, Malena has found a way to not only do what she loves<br />
as a passion and a career, but she has also found a way to simultaneously make a<br />
profound impact in the lives of others as well.<br />
Sharing the inspiration behind her recent aquatic ambitions, she says, “My biggest<br />
swims are not the ones that give me bigger or better medals, but the ones that are<br />
more meaningful and will help the community. In this case especially, it will help<br />
kids with cancer. In our lifetime, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed<br />
with cancer. I joined the Swim Across America community so that, together, we<br />
can change that.” Malena and a team of five other SAA swimmers will swim a<br />
relay composed of a double crossing of the Catalina Channel. Departing from<br />
Long Beach California, they will swim the channel to Catalina Island and back,<br />
totaling up to a 42-mile round trip.<br />
The battle against childhood cancer hits close to home for Malena because of<br />
the special bond she had with a young girl named Leah. Leah had a passion for<br />
swimming, and through her time swimming at AquaTots, a swimming school that<br />
Malena and her husband run, she and Malena built a close relationship. When<br />
Leah became diagnosed and, after fighting a good fight for over a year, eventually<br />
passed on from cancer, it moved Malena to jump into the fight. Malena says that<br />
she is swimming this upcoming race, on July 17th, for those who need it, and for<br />
Leah who can no longer swim.<br />
Malena Hankins:<br />
International Swim Champion &<br />
Owner of three AquaTots locations<br />
14 goodlifemagazine.org<br />
If you would like to support making a difference:<br />
Online donations can be made at SwimAcrossAmerica.org;<br />
search for Malena Hankins.
Change language