Kade Hannan was among those who swam to help others last summer. In his little turtle-print swimming trunks, the 4-year-old dog-paddled in the shallow end of the Towson Golf and Country Club pool, surrounded by children and adults swimming lap after lap in his name. His sister, Margo, 7, swam 76 laps. By day’s end, they had helped to raise more than $16,000 for the Division of Pediatric Cardiology fund to support Hopkins Children’s cardiac patient families in times of desperate need, whether with a hotel room for parents or meal tickets.

“My husband, Kyle, and I experienced an enormous outpouring of care and support from our friends and family when Kade was so sick,” says his mother, Angie Hannan. “We want to help other families who are now in the same boat. We got through it all, sustained by the very supportive community of unlimited compassion and understanding at Hopkins.

Diagnosed in utero at 20 weeks’ gestation with Tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia, a severe congenital heart defect, Kade was delivered at Hopkins at 28 weeks, and spent his first 117 days of life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Four heart surgeries, led by Professor of Surgery Duke Cameron, and four years later, Kade is in the swim of things. “He’s all boy,” says Hannan of her son, who carries the battle scars of his surgeries with aplomb, and faces more heart surgeries down the road. “His little fighting spirit has never wavered.”

The most valuable lesson, she concludes, of their experience as the parents of a critically ill child in Hopkins Children’s, is that “you don’t sit there and lick your own wounds. You just keep going, for your child, for yourself and for others you might be able to comfort along the way. There’s always someone there who has it much worse than you, and some child more in need.”

The Hannans are quick with appreciation of all who helped raise the $16,000. Towson Golf and Country Club waived all guest fees for participating swimmers and their families; GKV Advertising donated the swim-a-thon banners and T-shirts; and local businesses and individuals contributed silent auction items, from fitness club passes to beach house rentals.