Christopher Swain

This is some serious dedication:

While other people bike, ride and run for causes they care about, Swain has
already swum down the Hudson River (315 miles), across Lake Champlain (129
miles) and through all 1,200 miles of the Columbia River, which rises in British
Columbia and spills into the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Washington.
Because of the polluted waterways, Swain is risking his health to further
his cause.

"The most contaminated piece of land for instance in the entire Western Hemisphere is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington," Swain said. "The Columbia River flows right through it, and I swam right through there, not because I'm totally insane, but because I wanted to say, 'We should do something here.' I had seven ear infections, four bad respiratory infections. Three different times I had infections in my lymph system, lymph nodes that swelled up to golf ball size."

To prevent parasites and bacteria from making him sick, he takes a break every 600 strokes — he actually keeps count — to gargle with hydrogen peroxide.