More than 300 swimmers from 13 states gathered at an Orlando lake in May for the Golden Mile, a one-mile open-water event that raised more than $32,000 for St. Jude Global. The event was co-hosted by Montverde Academy senior Ethan Huynh, who has made childhood cancer advocacy part of his return to competitive swimming after being diagnosed with brain cancer at 14.
Huynh was diagnosed with brain cancer on February 21, 2023, according to the Orange Observer. Doctors discovered two tumors before a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis, and seven months of chemotherapy interrupted a swimming career that had been nearly a decade in the making. On a fundraising page for Swim Across America, Huynh wrote: “At 14 years old, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. I left behind 7 years of swim progress for treatment.”
The treatment affected his energy and appetite, Huynh told the Orange Observer. Seven months after finishing treatment, he qualified for and competed in a swim meet, beginning his return to the sport that had defined much of his childhood.
A Family Already Familiar With Cancer
Huynh's fight was not his family's first. His younger brother, Christian, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019 at age four, per the same Orange Observer account. The experience of watching a sibling battle cancer, then facing his own diagnosis years later, helped shape Huynh's decision to give back once he was well enough to swim again.
What the national data show
For context, the National Cancer Institute's SEER Cancer Stat Facts reports that the U.S. rate of new childhood brain and other nervous system cancer cases was 2.7 per 100,000 children per year, based on cases from 2019–2023. The death rate was 0.6 per 100,000 children per year, based on deaths from 2020–2024. Those figures provide a national benchmark; the supplied data do not establish a Florida-specific rate or show how diagnosis and survival patterns have changed over time.
That sense of responsibility led him to launch Swim For Hope Beyond Borders in May 2025, a fundraiser he built in partnership with the American Swimming Coaches Association and Swim Across America, according to the Orange Observer. The initiative is meant to fund cancer research and treatment for patients and families in need, and it gave Huynh a structured way to convert his own recovery into support for other kids still fighting.
The Golden Mile Draws Swimmers From 13 States
The centerpiece of that effort was the Golden Mile, held May 23, 2026, at Lake Cane in Orlando. According to Montverde Academy, more than 300 swimmers from 13 states took part. Huynh and fellow Montverde swimmers raised more than $32,000 for St. Jude Global, the school reported.
A separate LinkedIn post from WESH 2 CW18 put Huynh's cumulative fundraising for childhood cancer research through St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Swim Across America at $45,000, a figure that does not match the $32,000 total tied specifically to the Golden Mile. The station's post also noted that Huynh has collected toys for Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital's cancer center since age 10, where he said both he and his brother received treatment. His Swim Across America fundraising page separately states only that he has raised at least $1,000 through that platform, underscoring how the various totals track different campaigns rather than one another.
Huynh has framed his advocacy around a stark global gap. “In some parts of the world, childhood cancer survival rates can exceed 80 percent. In other parts of the world, they are less than 30 percent,” he said, according to Montverde Academy. That disparity is central to why he built Swim for Hope Beyond Borders around international reach rather than a single hospital or city.
Part of a Larger Swim Across America Push
Huynh's work fits into a broader pattern of Swim Across America fundraising events across Florida. In Tampa Bay, a charity swim at the St. Pete Pier raised more than $70,000 for pediatric cancer research at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, falling short of the event's $100,000 goal, according to Bay News 9. Those funds are earmarked for a clinical trial testing immunotherapies for children with hard-to-treat cancers, the station reported, and Swim Across America has raised more than $2 million for local beneficiaries over 15 years in the Tampa Bay area alone.
Nationally, Swim Across America says it has raised more than $100 million since its founding in 1987 to support oncology research and cancer-support care. Huynh, who described himself on his fundraising page as entering his 10th year as a competitive swimmer at Montverde Academy, has effectively built his senior year around extending that mission locally, one open-water swim at a time.
WBAL News Radio reported that Huynh has encouraged children fighting cancer to keep going with support from the people around them. His advocacy now extends the personal significance of his return to swimming into a broader campaign for childhood cancer research and care.
