CNBC reports that Maya Merhige, a 15-year-old from Berkeley, California, successfully swam around the entire island of Manhattan in eight hours and 43 minutes on July 15th,  becoming only the third person her age to complete the “20 Bridges Swim,” named for the bridges that swimmers pass under during their journey.

The 28.5-mile swim was worth more than bragging rights. Since 2020, she has been doing long-distance swims in partnership with Swim Across America, a nonprofit that hosts charity swims and donates the funds to cancer research. So far, she has raised over $17,000 this year. Since she started swimming for cancer research funding, she’s raised over $75,000.

In 2022, Merhige became the youngest swimmer in the world to swim the Kaiwi Channel, which lies between Molokai and Oahu, islands in Hawaii.

The Kaiwi Channel swim took 27 hours and 33 minutes to complete and is about 26 to 28 miles long; its strong currents make it particularly challenging to swim in. Merhige also holds the title of the youngest woman to swim the Catalina Channel in California.

“When I started swimming, I didn’t know that I was breaking the records, at all,” she says.

15-year-old girl swims 28.5 miles around Manhattan to raise money for cancer research