Who’s who at the Y?
Meet Stephanie Downey

Hi, I’m Stefanie Downey, a post-rare breast cancer survivor, registered nurse and a regular YMCA  aquafit goer. I have been going to the YMCA for a while now.

Post cancer, when I was in rehab doing the Stay Strong program at the YMCA, I remembered that before I got sick I had trained for a triathlon and decided to try again. I was very slow in the process to rebuild myself, took years of consistency. Literal baby steps, one day at a time.Then I joined the triathlon group with my partner and they were so welcoming and non judgmental that it made it fun and challenging. I met all walks of life in training for the same thing. I learned how to do transitions etc and it was fun! If I can do it, I have no doubt in my mind other people can do it. I just felt great challenging myself.

I only heard just recently that YMCA is setting up a mini tri and I would say that would be the best time to try out the sport. I am a person who gets bored doing one sport. The variety and challenging my body in different ways was so fun and different for me. I highly recommend.