Unstoppable. The mission of St. Paul, the theme of the 2009 Catholic year, and the word that gave Alli DeFrancesco, a graduate of University of San Diego High School (Uni), the strength to overcome seemingly impossible circumstances before making history. On August 28, 2013, Alli became the first Italian woman to swim the English Channel after a four-year struggle with cancer.

However, Alli’s future received its starting point at Cathedral Catholic’s mother school, Uni. “I loved Uni; as a small school environment with highly competitive academics and athletics, it was the perfect fit,” she said.

Alli graduated from Uni in 2005 as a four-time Varsity swim athlete with multiple CIF titles and a cross-country state championship under her belt. She traveled to St. Louis as a member of the National Honor Society board, was named female Academic-Athletic of the Year before graduating, and served as a features writer for an outstanding student newspaper by the name of El Cid.

Alli remembers the rigor of academics Uni offered, along with the encouragement to challenge oneself offered by the teachers on campus. “I will never forget any of my teachers at Uni,” she said. “Mrs. Wilsterman, who also taught my mom in the seventies, Mrs. Harmaning, who taught me how to write an outstanding research paper with perfect MLA formatting, and Mr. Trotter, who always said, ‘Do your best, cope with the rest.’  I was sitting in his class on 9/11.”

But ultimately, there was a central aspect of Alli’s education that guided her throughout her college experience, English channel swim, and life ever since. “It was in my four years at Uni that I began to learn how special life is, and to appreciate the uniqueness in every individual. I was taught that God always has a bigger plan,” she said.

A self-described “California girl with a big city heart,” she attended NYU on a whim after high school graduation. At NYU, she pursued an art history major, participated on the swim team, and studied abroad in Italy. She also befriended her swim coach Lauren Beam, a lady who would serve as both a mentor and inspiration for Alli in years to come.

In April 2009, Alli was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. “When I found out, I was volunteering with my church, St. James in Solana Beach, at a middle school retreat during the year of St. Paul where the theme was Unstoppable,” she said. “After I finally learned that Lymphoma was in fact cancer, I couldn’t help but think it was all a bit ironic and would make a great book one day.”

In the following months, Alli was informed that she was underdiagnosed, attended treatment at UCLA, and even interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy.

While looking back, Alli said, “I lost control of my entire environment, mentally and physically.  I’m a bit of a neurotic planner, and it drove me crazy that I couldn’t plan ahead more than a day at a time.  There was never a guarantee of how my blood levels would be when I woke up – assuming I was able to get any sleep. I went from craving sweets to loving dill pickles and steak.  I lost my hair down to my eyelashes.  I lost control of my thoughts, my dreams, and my body, the latter of which is a huge dilemma for an athlete.”

However, just two years after her diagnosis, she faced an additional challenge – the loss of a close friend. Lauren Beam, Alli’s former NYU swim coach, lost her own battle with cancer in September 2011.

It was on the plane ride back to San Diego from Lauren’s funeral that Alli realized a new goal of hers. “I wanted to do something recognized as universally challenging as cancer, but also within my means,” she said. “You mention cancer to anyone on the street, and they wince. You mention the English Channel to that same person and, most likely, you won’t have to offer too much of an explanation.  With the ocean at my door, an A-team of coaches assembled, and an extensive swimming background, it seemed like the obvious choice.” And so, Alli set her goal: to swim the English Channel.

“What I didn’t know then, however, were the many similarities between training for such an event and battling cancer,” she said. “Taking a risk, committing to a plan, preparing for the unknown, knowing the possibilities, and using all your energy to fight for the best outcome – one doesn’t just wake up and swim the English Channel, and similarly, a cure for cancer doesn’t come overnight.”

Though the payoff was rewarding, Alli certainly faced challenges throughout her training journey. “When you first tell someone you’re going to swim the English Channel, there’s really no turning back. Then there was Lauren, waking up with me at 4:30am saying, ‘Cut the crap… you said you were going to do this…’”

The first time at it, Alli was forced to turn back; on her second attempt, she was determined and ready to live up to her challenge. Alli trained up to sixty miles a week – in the water 6 days a week, working out under the same swimming coach she’d had since the age of twelve. “I also made a greater attempt to embrace the cold,” she said. “That meant driving with the AC on, swimming through the winter, refusing wetsuits, taking cold showers…I even bought a kiddie pool to fill with ice water and soak in.”

Finally, on that fateful day at the end of August, Alli was ready. She had flown out to London a week before, in preparation; at 3:00 a.m. on August 28, it was go time. The swim lasted eleven hours and fourteen minutes, and at 2:14 p.m. on the same day, the first Italian woman to swim the English Channel landed at Cap-Gris-Nez, France.

Almost two months later, Alli said, “I couldn’t be happier with the entire experience and more amazed at where it has brought me.  The swim itself was a testament to all the preparation and sacrifice, as well as a culmination of my battle with cancer.”

Now three years in remission, Alli’s cancer is stable. She confesses that the fear of its return, however, haunts her: Hodgkin’s lymphoma has a tendency to recur 2-6 years following a given remission.

But the fear of her cancer’s return has not stopped her. “Life gives each of us choices and sometimes it just happens.  When faced with cancer, there’s the very real challenge of choosing between life and death.  I pray every day in thanks for the strength of my Faith in getting me this far.”

Alli is currently nominated as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the Year, and has plans to continue swimming as well as finish up plans with grad school.

“Faith.  It begins and ends with faith,” she said. “It was at the core of my education at Uni, and it was also the basis for my swim.  The Holy Spirit held my hand in the hospital, and the Spirit guided me across the English Channel.”

Here are two El Cid stories written by Ms. DeFrancesco in 2005 – Review     Report