MAN TAKES ON FUNDRAISING SWIM 25-MILE PERIMETER OF UPPER CASTAIC LAKE IS HIS PLANNED ROUTE.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The term breaststroke will assume new meaning when a senior citizen who took up competitive long-distance swimming late in life traces the 25-mile perimeter of Upper Castaic Lake.

``Dolphinman'' lost his grandmother to breast cancer more than 20 years ago, before modern treatments evolved. His planned record-setting swim at the lake will raise money to aid breast cancer patients, in her memory.

``He's like an angel,'' said Terry Bucknall, director of women's imaging services at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, whose Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center will benefit. ``He came out of the blue ... and said he wanted to do this swim to raise money for the center.''

Gary Greenwood, 64, was not always such an angel. He smoked cigarettes for 30 years beginning at age 13 and was an alcoholic, drug addict and food addict for decades before ditching abuse and embracing vitality at 44. He pared the 50-inch waist and 300 pounds on his nearly 6-foot frame to 36 inches and 205 pounds.

The decision to switch gears came years after rehab failed.

``I just stopped,'' he said. ``You get to a point in life when you want to live or you don't. You need to straighten up or die.''

His wife of nearly 41 years, Maureen, says she is proud of him and barely stifles a grin when he tells people he is 46, not 64.

``He has such a good heart,'' she said.

Greenwood's grandmother died from breast cancer in 1957, and his mom lost her battle with leukemia in 1980. The event is meant to honor his grandmother, who ``didn't really have a chance like they do today,'' he said.

The American Cancer Society estimates nearly 213,000 women across the country were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. Though advanced treatments mean fewer women succumb to the disease, nearly 41,000 women in the U.S. die from breast cancer each year. The five-year survival rate for those with localized tumors is 98 percent, and the 10-year overall survival rate among those with the disease is 80 percent, according to the group.

In California, about 22,000 new cases were detected in 2006, and about 4,100 women died from the disease. The good news is from 1988 to 2002 the number of cases statewide decreased 12 percent and the number of deaths dropped 29 percent.

The hospital opened the Imaging Center four years ago. More than 200 cancers have been detected in the 25,000 patients who have undergone mammograms there, Bucknall said. Donations from the swim will help upgrade the technology and equipment and enhance services, she said.

Greenwood, the second-oldest person to complete the Catalina channel swim, is preparing for the Oct. 14 event by swimming 28 miles a week and performing yoga.

During the estimated 14-hour event, he will stop every 20 minutes or so -- for about 15 seconds -- to consume a carb-laden drink handed to him by a revolving team of kayakers paddling in his wake. He will forgo food, and estimates he will burn about 1,000 calories an hour.

A one-piece body suit will protect his skin from rippling, which creates drag. He is grateful the lake contains no jellyfish, which he says stung him more than 2,000 times off and on during the ocean crossing.

``They hit you like rapid fire,'' he said.

The former airline ramp serviceman and cement-truck driver never joined a swim team and did not enter his first ocean competition till 1990. He earned the nickname swimming among dolphins in Santa Barbara as he trained for an earlier fundraiser. His 23-mile swim from Long Beach to Catalina a couple of years ago raised about $7,000 for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, he said.

Among Greenwood's agua buddies is Steve Neale, 54, a swimming coach and history teacher at Hart High School.

``It's an affirmation of the good things in life (for him,)'' Neale said.'' Working out so hard, pushing yourself beyond your fears, the personal demons out there we all have -- it's dark, it's scary, I'm too old, it's too cold -- every single thing people have. Swimming around Catalina or the lake -- he ties it around a wonderful fundraiser -- something big, beyond the world of Gary.''

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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TO DONATE

Donations may be mailed to: Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center/Gary Greenwood, P.O. Box 214, Castaic, CA 91384. Checks should be payable to the HMNMH Foundation, Taxpayer ID No. 95-3849903.

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(color) On Oct. 14, Gary Greenwood will swim the entire perimeter of the upper Castaic Lake to raise breast cancer awareness.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

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