SUN CITY – Meet Joan Souchek, N.3. She’s the one gracefully swimming in the Olympic-sized pool in the lodge here at Sun City. Or you might see her teaching a swim class to her fellow aqua friends practicing for the next meet. Joan and her husband, Paul, have been residents for the past eleven years and, with Joan having always been a swimmer, quickly became involved, starting the “Sting Rays,” the name of the Del Webb community swim team, in 2000. Joan, along with 31 other members, meet four times a week for an hour or two to swim, exercise, and improve their all-around health.
Sun City resident Joan Souchek of N. 3 was diagnosed with COPD in 1999. She says that swimming cured her of her illness. (Photo provided)
“Swimming has healed me from my COPD. I now have a clean bill of health! I am swimming to keep my health! Yes!” she wrote with pride on the Sting Ray’s pamphlet.
Joan was diagnosed with COPD in 1999, the same year they moved to Del Webb. COPD is a long-term illness that usually gets worse with time. It’s also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis and is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., according the National Institute of Health, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Even though she never smoked, she grew up in a household where her father and brothers did.
She was having to use Advair and another inhaler and had a nagging cough.
“I started swimming, and gradually, I didn’t need inhalers all the time. I was breathing better…”
Joan is also a member of the Illinois Masters Swimming and is looking forward to their next meet in July in Park Ridge at their Senior Center.
“Not everyone competes. Maybe 10 [of us]. Our coach [John Bolger] is always very helpful.”
In 1950, she volunteered with the Red Cross where she taught swimming to children in Itasca and Wood Dale at the Flick-Reedy, an industrial park in Wood Dale.
However, her career as a medical secretary and raising a family took precedent over swimming. For thirty years, she was a medical secretary at Alexian Brothers Hospital. Soon after she and her husband moved to Sun City, in 1999, she retired. Joan attributes her active lifestyle, swimming, and Chi Gong to her improved and good health.
“My chiropractor gives free [Chi Gong] lessons once a week over at the bank [America Community Bank].”
Chi Gong is a low-impact, slow-moving exercise that has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Chi Gong has helped millions with a variety of health challenges, while it exercises and revitalizes the body.
Joan confessed, “There’s a lot of breathing [involved]. I went to get tested in February, and the tech looked at me and said, ‘Who said you had COPD?’ My doctor told me I had normal lungs,” said Joan.
Besides swimming and Chi Gong, Joan also golfs on a women’s league. Over time, her lungs cleared. She earned her first ribbon in early 2001 and is looking forward to competing in the upcoming meet in Homewood-Flossmoor Park sometime in August. Her medals and ribbons hang in her bedroom. Joan is constantly promoting swimming for health, encouraging young people not to smoke and to keep swimming. While a couple of her friends who swim have seen a dramatic reduction in the reoccurrence of bronchitis, her non-swimming friends breathing illnesses have gotten worse.
Joan also added, “If you’re going to have hip or knee surgery, the doctors will tell you to swim before and after, particularly with knee surgery.”
Joan has taught her three children, who are now grown, and her seven grandchildren, how to swim.
