Jun 28, 2024 By Eleanor Bailey 5 min read

Saturday’s “PanCan” open water swim is short in comparison to other marathons Judy Caves has completed, but it may be the most significant.

The 63-year-old Mt. Lebanon woman is swimming 4.5 miles in the Monongahela River as part of the Making Waves for Pancreatic Cancer Research fundraiser.

The disease took her mother’s life. Doris Bodine passed away on April 6, 2005, on the eve of her daughter’s 45th birthday, at the age of 80. Bodine and her husband, Gerald, had four offspring who gave her nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Caves was with her mother through the two years she spent in hospice until she took her last breath, living in her family home in Dormont during the final three weeks of the illness.

“It was definitely time well-spent with Mom,” Caves said. “I remember saying things to her, and I knew she could hear me because when I told her that she was still a graceful lady while lying there dying, her mouth turned up (in a smile). I wouldn’t have had those moments, had I not stayed with her.”

Those memories will be with Caves as she churns through the choppy waters of The Mon on Saturday. The swim starts at Duck Hollow, just below the Homestead Highland Bridge. It’s roughly 2.5 miles out and back.

“It will be bittersweet,” Caves said. “The time (in the water) will enable me to take a trip down memory lane as I remember Mom.

“It will also remind me of how lucky I am to be alive to do this and why I am doing this. I will think of the people suffering. I know how painful (pancreatic cancer) is.”

Pancreatic cancer is the least funded cancer in terms of research. The five-year survival rate for the disease is 12% across all stages. Additionally, it often has no noticeable symptoms.

“It breaks my heart that they haven’t gotten any better in detection of the disease,” Caves said. “That’s why it’s important to fundraise.”

Since the pandemic, when pools were closed, Caves has been fundraising for causes while also feeding her need to swim. In 2020, she relied on the rivers for fun as Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club members performed their workouts in open waters.

In 2021, Caves and four other masters swimmers covered the same 4.5-mile distance to raise money for the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank. In 2022, the beneficiary was the Light of Light Mission, and in 2023, it was for breast cancer. This year the target is to raise $5,000 for pancreatic cancer.

“At my stage in life,” said the retired Seton La Salle High School guidance counselor, “I needed a win from hearing all the bad news of today. Life is challenging but not a day goes by that I don’t think not to do things like this.”

Caves has always been a swimmer with a passion for giving back. Her career began at Keystone Oaks High School and progressed to Bethany (W.Va.) College, where she competed against men because there was no women’s team.

“I was not the best, not the fastest,” Caves recalled. “I just loved the challenge.”

Caves stopped swimming for a time to pursue a career in advertising and public relations as well as raise her family. She and her husband, Norman, raised two boys, Sam and Keith.

After learning about masters swim programs at Pitt and Mt. Lebanon, she embraced the challenge of endurance events. Her first long-distance swim, a two-mile trek through Porter’s Cove, was at Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park, where she most recently trained on June 25, four days prior to the PanCan event.

Caves has also finished a four-mile swim in the Chesapeake Bay and covered six miles in Lake Michigan. She completed a 12.5-mile event in Charleston, S.C., as well as around Key West, not to mention a 28.5-mile New York open water swim event that circled around Manhattan. Other ultra marathon open water swims included: 20 miles on the Potomac River, 18 miles on Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers and back-to-back trips dubbed the Border Buster, a 25-kilometer open-water swim meandering through glacier-fed Lake Memphremagog between Newport, Vt., and Magog, Quebec, and the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim in New York.

Caves works out in the water six times a week. During the summer months, her training sessions are held at the Mt. Lebanon Outdoor Swim Center. She also swims indoors at the high school pool as well as LA Fitness in Bridgeville.

Most recently, Caves entered the United States Masters Swim competition held in Indianapolis. There she competed in the 500 meter freestyle against other swimmers from across the country. Caves clocked a 6:50.95 time and finished 16th overall. She was particularly pleased with her dramatic drop in time as her entry mark was 7:10.

“I’m not a fast pool swimmer,” she said. “So I was excited,” she added.

Caves was also thrilled to also attend the U.S. Olympic Trials as a spectator because they coincided with the masters event.

The trials were held in Lucas Oil Stadium. The NFL home of the Colts was converted into three pools, including the competition one where swimmers vied for the 52 slots on the national team that would compete in the Summer Games beginning July 26 in Paris.

“What a phenomenal venue,” Cave said. “It had all the bells and whistles. The atmosphere was electric and the competition was intense.”

For more information or to donate to the “Making Waves for Pancreatic Cancer Research” fundraiser, visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network website.