Topping at the Brooklyn Brigde Swim.
Wethersfield Resident Shows Strength in Stormy Waters
WETHERSFIELD - When Cathy Topping was five years old, her father threw her into the deep end of her family’s in-ground pool.

       She had never swam before. Topping still remembers his words of encouragement: â€"Sink or swim, little girl!”

       Luckily, she swam, and she hasn’t stopped. The Wethersfield resident enjoyed a stellar high school career and then moved onto swim at the Division I college level.

       When coaching the sport failed to emulate the thrills being in the water brought her, Topping began competing again--not only with other swimmers, but herself.

       She swam to Alcatraz and around the Statue of Liberty, among other feats. Topping was faced with an opponent the pool could not provide: The current.

       â€"It’s not really something you can 100 percent prepare for,” Topping said. â€"The water is a complete anomaly--it can take you anywhere.”

       Topping set her sights on topping that by traversing the English Channel. She planned to accomplish this by age 40. Then, for the first time, life’s current took her into waters that appeared to be over her head.

       At age 36, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. All of a sudden, she was swimming against a riptide.

       â€"My life stopped in that very moment,” Topping said. â€"I lost my hair, gained 200 pounds, endured endless rounds of chemo and radiation to no avail. Finally, I was forced to either sink or swim, on land. I elected the most radical and drastic hope for a cure: A bi-lateral mastectomy.”

       Over the course of the next two years, she would undergo nine surgeries. Topping was 46 when her doctors told her she had beaten it.

       â€"‘No signs of cancer. Full remission granted,’” Topping said, recalling the words uttered by her medical team. â€"Those seven words are an indelible mark on my soul. So, I am choosing to give back, to the disease which very nearly claimed my life on three occasions.”

       She’ll do that June 20 at the Statewide-Metro Boston Against the Tide, an event held to benefit the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition. The annual fundraiser, going into its 23rd year, features swimming and kayaking, as well as running and walking events in an effort to generate proceeds for breast cancer prevention.

       â€"So, here I am, ready for the sprint,” Topping said. â€"Travelling the road to tomorrow, one splash at a time.”

       And the English Channel? She says she’s not sure.

       â€"I don’t know,” Topping said. â€"It’s a work in progress. It depends on a lot of things. Do I still want to devote to it?”

       What she’s saying is, she might finally be looking to move past swimming--something she could not bring herself to do years ago in her first coaching stint. Topping recently took up fly fishing. Maybe that’s the new adventure, she says. The possibilities are endless, but one thing is for certain.

       â€"My passion will always be surrounded by water,” Topping said. â€"Water is my north. That’s what I always go back to when I lose track.”
MORE WETHERSFIELD NEWS  |  STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA  |  Jun 19 2015  |  COMMENTS?