KITCHENER -- A Kitchener woman has swam a distance equivalent to crossing Lake Erie for a cause close to her heart.

“Every hour I swam for an individual who lost their life to suicide,” said Coralee Allaert, who pushed her limits swimming 30 kilometres in 12 hours in an indoor pool in Missisauga.

The 22-year-old originally planned to swim across the Great Lake but mother nature had other plans. Weather forced not one but three postponements.

“The Great Lakes ultimately said no, but my heart said yes,” said Allaert.

Allaert, having faced her own struggle with depression and anxiety, she said when she reached out her mentor and coach, Larry Optis, for help, he created this challenge for her to overcome.

"It’s great that she had the courage to reach out to somebody, to share that she was struggling,” explained Optis. “You can take some of the learnings and teachings from doing some of these things to overcome some of the obstacles in your life.”

Allaert said she’s swam about 800 to 900 kilometres since February and the training allowed her “to put her energy into something more positive so I’m not thinking about the hardships.”

The swim also fundraised more than $6,500 for Jack.org, a national youth mental health charity.

“It’s just incredible what young leaders like Coralee do to support this important work,” said the charity’s founder and executive director, Eric Windeler.

He adds a feat like this shares a powerful message to “reduce stigma and importantly, increase help-seeking and that education (about mental health) is not something that is happening at near the level that it should.”

Windeler hopes that people understand that mental health “is a real thing, I don’t need to be embarrassed about it and I should be talking about it.”

Optis said he couldn’t be more proud of Allaert’s accomplishment and dedication.

“You have to dig deep and push through and she was able to do that and I’m really impressed,” said Optis.

Allaert emphasized that she didn’t want to do the swim for herself but for others and she just listened to her coach’s advice to push through the exhaustion, “be humble and kind, live life with gratitude.”

She is planning to swim across both lake Erie and lake Ontario next summer and continue looking beyond the horizons.