My Journey With Ulcerative Colitis Sparks A Movement To Sponsor Young Women Swimmers

Start with the water, and everything changes. That’s the through line of our latest solo session, where I share how living with ulcerative colitis reshaped my training, my coaching, and the way I build community around big, heart-led goals. From the confusion of early symptoms to finally finding a doctor who listened, I walk through the choices that brought remission, like refusing medications that felt wrong for my body and embracing an infusion therapy that gave me space to breathe, move, and dream again.

As I returned to swimming and stepped into triathlon—first small events, then half and full Ironman—I learned to treat effort as a conversation. Some days the answer was yes, push; other days it was no, rest. That practice of listening became the foundation for Swim It Forward, an initiative that directs 5% of my coaching revenue into a partial sponsorship awarded each June starting in 2026. The sponsorship supports one woman aged 18 to 30 who loves to swim—and who’s rebuilding after adversity, whether that’s chronic illness, mental health challenges, grief, or major life transitions.

We talk about what inspired the initiative, including a young athlete who rebuilt her stroke and spirit after big setbacks, and why the goal isn’t perfection but presence: showing up for yourself in the water and letting that confidence ripple into the rest of your life. 

I outline the application process, the storytelling component that helps others see what’s possible, and practical ways anyone can help—donations, gear, mentorship, or simply sharing the opportunity with someone who needs it.

If this message resonates, join the wave. Tap here for more information on Swim it Forward and also how you can contribute. 

Keep being the rad active woman you are! 

Want to donate to Crohn's and Colitis Canada? Click here.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Format

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Raw Podcast. If you're new here, Raw stands for Rad Active Water Women. And most of the time on this podcast, we will have guests, but then we also have me talking to you. So we'll have solo episodes of me speaking to you about riffing on something important in my life, but something that will hopefully inspire you, or maybe you will learn from. And then the next one will be a guest. And this guest can come from anywhere around the world. So today, this is a solo recording with

Why Swim It Forward Exists

SPEAKER_00 0:33

me. And today I'm going to talk about the Swim It Forward initiative. And I want to just talk a little more about that so you fully understand what it is, the purpose behind it, but I really want to connect you to the story of why this came to life. So as most of you know, and if you don't, I've been coaching for many years. It's been over 15 years. I've been swim coaching and life coaching. But swimming forward came to life before

Living With Ulcerative Colitis

SPEAKER_00 1:02

that. So when I was in my early 20s, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. So I've been living with that in my life, and now I'm in my late 40s and managing it and went into remission. But I'll back it up a little bit. So I didn't know I had ulcerative colitis right away. And to be honest, it took quite a few years, a couple of years, to actually know that that is the illness that I was living with. So through many tests and doctors and people listening to me and trying new things, I finally got to a stage where they knew what I what they could diagnose me with, which is ulcerative colitis. So it was a bit of a journey through different medications, but I knew in my heart that I wanted to do more in my life. And I've always been a swimmer, but I did take a pause in my life when I was younger, and then I came back into it in my early 20s. And I love water. Like I've been surrounded by water probably my whole life, even if I wasn't swimming competitively like I was when I was younger. But I grew up around sailing. Um, I grew up with a pool in my backyard, so I was like, I was immersed with water all the time, and I just loved it. That was my place to play, that was my place to be with family, that was my place to now heal and grow in a place where I find it very peaceful, but it's also a place where I coach. So going back into the story of ulcer colitis, I wanted to do more when I was, you know, in my early

Finding Healing Through Water

SPEAKER_00 2:42

20s. And so I started to lean into triathlon, but I knew I needed to get better. Um, but I wanted to see what my body could do. So navigating with ulcer clay is I met different people and I went to like my first try-a-try and sprint, and I was doing okay, and then I started to go into like half marathons as well. And um, there was one day that I couldn't actually run it because I was in so much pain. And that was the point in my life where I was like, I need to get this, I don't know if fixed is the right word, but in remission sounds better to me, where I could start to live my life more normally and I could push my body in ways that I want it to. So I found an incredible doctor, and I knew in my heart that there was there's certain medications that I just did not like the feeling in my body, and I refused to go on it. I knew that those could make me better, but mentally I did not like how it made me feel. So my doctor really listened to me. So then we started a new like infusion, and I've been on this for I don't know how many years now, in my late 40s, so quite a long time, and it actually put me into remission. I do have some flare-ups once in a while, but they're usually short-lived as soon as I'm in communication with my doctor and we get that kind of going. I also find that stress is a big trigger too. I think it's because your body is reacting to that inflammation. And it's not just inflammation in your gut, it's like inflammation in a lot of different places, and you're holding that. And sometimes you're holding it in a place where you know maybe you can't like let it out your voice out, you know. I've definitely learned through my life

From Triathlons To Ironman

SPEAKER_00 4:36

to use my voice more to find ways to release this, and it has helped me as well. So moving back a little bit, I then started to go into bigger triathlons. I loved how it made me feel. I loved seeing how I could push my body to a certain point, a safe point. I loved seeing like how my body felt inside and how I could listen to it. It really taught me that going through having ulcerative colitis, you really learn like your body very well. Um, and you start to really listen literally listen to your gut. And um, so then I dabbled, then I started to go into um iron half iron man's and then I pushed into full iron man's, and my body was still doing okay with it, and I was grateful every time I showed up, and I would listen when I needed that rest, you know. So this is part of my story, you know. Like I went down the journey, I um I was living my life, I knew I wanted to do that, and hopefully inspire somebody else along the way that maybe is going down that journey as well. So if you're out there and you're living with ulcerative colitis and you're finding it's it can be very frustrating, it can be exhausting, but if you can find that spark within you of you know what that vision or that dream that sits inside of you to bring or to lean into it, so you can start living your life and finding that doctor that will support that, I highly that's the route that I went, and that's what my body allowed me to do and my mind.

Inspiration From A Young Swimmer

SPEAKER_00 6:22

So bringing it more into the present day, um, I would say maybe about a year ago, somebody crossed my path. It was a young woman, and she her story really intrigued me, and she was very young, and um what she had gone through in her life um was quite big, but she was a swimmer and she had to rebuild like her swimming from you know, being a she's maybe 20 years old now, but when she was younger, she had to rebuild that, she had to rebuild a lot of things, and seeing someone do that at that age and have that drive to want to then go towards something else and attempt something else was really beautiful to witness. And for me, it wasn't about seeing a young woman like have to finish it. If she did, wonderful, but it wasn't about that, it was about watching the journey and the drive to show up for herself and to swim and to do things that they loved. So that was another kind of nugget that inspired me to do what I do.

Building A Ripple Effect For Women

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Also, just seeing other women out there that have got other have been through other adversity in their life, whether it is ulceritis, whether you have had cancer or have cancer, or you know, it's mental health, or it's you know, any sort of adversity in your life. Maybe it's like you've been through a divorce, um, you're going through a separation. Like to me, like that is so hard. I've been through that, and that's that itself has a story behind it. And so if you're but that's being that's quite young, right? So, but maybe you have, maybe that's part of your journey. So then as I move along, I'm I'm seeing this clear picture of something that I wanted to create, and I wasn't sure where it would live or how it would live. I first had this big audacious goal uh or vision, I guess, of starting my own foundation. And then I was like, huh, I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for that yet. So I was like, how can I incorporate this into my business, into Sarah Freeman coaching? And I wanted to do something bigger myself than myself. And I've said this for many years. If you know me well and you listen to me what I'm saying, I wanted to create something bigger than myself. I wanted to give back, but not just give back to create a ripple effect outwards. So then this young woman, or even somebody else, another woman watching, would then want to do this and then pay it forward.

How Swim It Forward Works

SPEAKER_00 9:10

So Summit Forward came to life. And this is the first year I am really sinking into it. And how I ended up kind of getting to how I wanted it to look is that 5% of all my coaching goes into, you know, I don't want to say a pot, but basically a pot, and then in June of 2026, and every year after, every June, then this will be gifted to a young woman between the ages of 18 to 30, anywhere that has a swim dream that's been through adversity, that is ready to do this and is committed to do this. And it's through an application, so it there is a process for this, and it's for one young woman out there that is ready to fully ignite the dream. So that's where I ended up going with Cement Forward, and there's there's other things that are starting to pop up in my life too, and that are part of this journey, and I believe they will just keep on kind of coming into this as well, you know. Um, I'll share another story down the road, but not not quite yet. But I want to share these stories too of the I want to call them the dreamers, maybe it's the visionaries, um, that I do choose um to, I guess, sponsor. Um I want to be able to share their story, and that's part of the process too. To then my hope is it will inspire you to ignite something in your life or to support another person, um, to create that ripple effect of goodness to support. I don't know about you, but when I was in my 20s, like up to 30, like I would have loved it if somebody would have come to me and been like, hey, I'm doing this thing and I'd love to sponsor you or look at this, and you know, and it's it's not a full sponsorship. This is a partial sponsorship. This is something that just I want to gift to a young woman to help support a part of their dream, their vision, whatever that may be. And that is a support from all of the athletes that I'm coaching, so and how they contribute. So that's the other ripple effect that goes out there as well. So as we go through this, there's another kind of component too, like Summit Forward, that I would put out there to you is that if you're like, wow, this is amazing, I've never heard of this, I want to support this, but I don't know how.

Ways To Support And Apply

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Like, reach out to me, check out my website that actually lists some ways you can support. You can support through like a financial way, you could support through sharing this through your social media feed or forwarding it on somebody else, or maybe you just want to donate something that you feel that would support this dreamer that will be chosen. So I'll put the link in here in my podcast for all the information. And this is something that sits very close to my heart, and I hope that you will share this outwards too, to some young woman in your life that is going through adversity, um, somebody who is ready to ignite that dream within their heart and soul, and wants to create a ripple effect.

Closing Gratitude And Invitations

SPEAKER_00 12:40

So thank you everybody for listening to this episode, this solo episode of Raw Podcast. And if you're interested in swim it forward, I've put the link below. If you're loving this raw podcast, which you must be because you're listening here today, please share it outwards. Leave a comment. And if you know a young, not even just a young swimmer, but just a swimmer, someone who loves water, they don't even have to be a swimmer. Um, they could just be a water lover, a surfer, whatever, and they have a story. Um, please send it my way. I'm always looking for incredible guests across the world. So thank you, everyone. Have such a beautiful day. Keep being the red, active water woman you are, and keep shining that beautiful light that you do have within your soul.