St. Pete sister swims Saturday for cancer research

At most swim meets, people applauding from the sidelines are rooting for athletes chasing records or defeating fierce opponents. At Saturday’s Swim Across America event, to be held at Spa Beach in St. Pete, Francesca “Frankie” Grieco-Routh will be cheering for a different sort of victory – beating cancer.

Frankie’s 11-year-old sister Emmersan (“Emmie”) will be competing in the half-mile open water swim in honor of her sibling, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at age 3. Frankie, now 13, is celebrating 10 years of being cancer-free.

Emmie is joined by teammates from St. Petersburg Aquatics’ Team BEST. To date, the team has raised  $15,034 for cancer research. The money raised from this weekend’s event will support Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, where Frankie currently receives care.

Despite her cancer-free diagnosis, Frankie requires continued medical attention due to a rare form of epilepsy. In early 2024, the family began looking for medical care that was able to address both the neurological and oncological aspects of Frankie’s medical history. Most hospitals had at least 10-month wait lists, but Johns Hopkins told the family they could begin treatment much sooner.

“We moved here in July and then we started her getting seen by oncology, and by neurology, and the momentum was unparalleled to what we had previously experienced,” Frankie’s mom, Giselle Grieco-Routh, explained about the care received at the hospital.  “We knew immediately we were in the right place.”

Uprooting the family was a challenging choice, but one that everyone got behind in the interest of Frankie’s health. Younger sister Emmie quickly found a sense of normalcy in the swimming community in St. Pete.

Competing in Swim Across America, a nationwide program, to raise money for cancer research was the perfect way for her to give back to the hospital that has given so much to her family.

The drive to give back is ever-present in the Grieco-Routh family. Despite Frankie’s grueling medical treatments, she continued to fight while also looking out for those around her. “She still had this magical source of energy to just fill other people up – that’s the ultimate sign of never giving up. No matter how hard it got, she still found time to care about others,” said her mother.

The Swim Across America event starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at Spa Beach, on the St. Pete Pier.

Emmie (left) is the competitive swimmer in the family.