Student's English Channel Swim Supports Violence Intervention

The Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) recently shared the amazing story of a student who swam across the English Channel to benefit CHOP’s Violence Intervention Program (VIP).

In mid-August Ika Kovacikova, who in 2012 took part in CIRP’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, swam from Dover, England, to Calais, France — a distance of more than 20 miles!

“The last four hours were really truly tough,” Ika wrote on her blog. “There is no other way to describe it. This was the only time I ever started to doubt being able to finish. … The current picked up going one way, and the winds picked up going the other. … At this point I was making very little forward progress, as the tide was pushing me sideways away from the shore rather than towards it. France was getting no closer!”

But made it she did — after 11 hours and 28 minutes of swimming! To date, Ika has raised roughly $600 to support the VIP, which “promotes a “trauma-informed” approach to helping patients” who have been admitted to CHOP after suffering intentional injury at another’s hands.

To read more about Ika’s inspirational story, see the Center for Injury Research and Prevention blog.