Extreme swimmer, how Christophe Corne has braved the cold for 23 years for research against leukemia

It has become a tradition in Haut-Doubs. Extreme swimmer Christophe Corne will repeat his crossing of Lake Saint-Point this Sunday, November 10, 2024, in water that will be around 10 degrees. 850m distance, for 12 to 15 minutes of swimming without a wetsuit, a feat renewed each year in the fight against leukemia.

“These are ideal conditions. It can hardly be better!” : Swimming across Lake Saint-Point, in Haut-Doubs, will be a walk in the park for him. Christophe Corne has taken up the challenge every year for more than 20 years, and at the beginning of November, the weather is still relatively mild.

“Bright sunshine in the afternoon, no wind. We feel the cold much less when there is no air”assures the lifeguard, accustomed to swimming in cold water. In terms of warming up, it’s faster, the body will warm up much faster.” The outside temperature will be about the same as the water, around 10 degrees.

Enough to scare away most swimmers, but Christophe Corne, who comes from the hamlet of Chaudron, on the edge of the lake, has experienced much worse. “I already swam at 1.5 degrees, just before it froze.”

Below 10 degrees there is a big change. It's a pleasure there, it's not summer, but there are no major sensations of cold, apart from the immersion of the head. It lasts two or three minutes, after which the body adapts.

An astonishing physical condition, which is above all the result of constant training. “I swim in the sea or lake all year round”explains Christophe Corne, who is known to have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, or reached the Alcatraz prison, in San Francisco Bay in California.

In the Doubs, he of course walks the Saint Point lake, but also appreciates immersions in the blue spring, in the neighboring village of Montperreux, whose water varies from 4 to 12 degrees depending on the season.

It’s a great event, Christophe, he’s a real guy. He is an extreme swimmer. He shows self-sacrifice. But he doesn't just do it, he bathes in it all year round.

André Jannet, event organizer

However, swimming in cold water, known to be stimulating for the body, remains a dangerous activity, it involves an element of unpredictability. If the Comtois swimmer will only be equipped on Sunday with a cap and an emergency float, the crossing, with a length of 850 meters for approximately 12 to 15 minutes of swimming, will be carried out with a nearby boat, on which a lifeguard will be present. On arrival, near the Malbuisson nautical base, another swimmer will be statically immersed in the water of the lake.

The event is organized for the benefit of the Jura association Nausicaa combats leukemia, which since 2002 has been mobilizing for research against cancer. “It’s by multiplying the little days like this that we manage to do something, it’s gratifying”testifies Christophe Corne.

More than a sporting feat, it is a popular festival that warms up the shores of Lake Saint-Point every fall, located at an altitude of 850 meters. Fanfare, sale of jewelry from a designer from Malbuisson, pea soup, morbiflette to take away, “For this time of year, it’s a great celebration”rejoices André Jannet, president of Nausicaa and organizer of the event, the profits of which will go to the association.

Every year, the lake crossing is an important event for Nausicaa. “The association is named after my daughter”explains André Jannet. In 2003, the five-year-old girl died following a acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Since then, André Jannet and the almost 2,000 members of the association have moved heaven and earth to raise donations to be donated to research into treatments. In 20 years, nearly a million euros have been raised, a huge gesture that André Jannet would like to be even bigger: ”It’s sorely lacking, researchers need a lot of money.”

But the 2024 edition should have a special flavor since two INSERM researchers (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) from Besançon, Christophe Ferrand and Marina Deschamps, will be present to discuss a major advance in their work on a biomedicine project which will help fight acute myeloid leukemia, a bone marrow disease which affects 5,000 people in France each year.

A phase 1 clinical trial has therefore just been authorized by the European Medicines Agency for this treatment, which could replace painful chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, two solutions which fail, in the majority of cases, to be successful. achieve healing.

“They’ve been working on it for ten years”supports André Jannet, who hopes a “revolution” in the sense of healing. “We will select the unaffected white blood cells, we will put them in culture, we will pass this bag back to you, and the healthy white blood cells will attack those which are sick”summarizes the president of the Nausicaa association, who is also president of the organizing and defense committee of the Saint-Claude hospital in Jura.

The appointment is this Sunday, November 10 at 10:30 a.m. in Malbuisson, for an arrival scheduled from 11 a.m. “We hope that many people will come”says Christophe Corne, who, at 60, never tires of swimming out of solidarity.