Brent McAuliffe, right, will try to become the first Pennsylvanian to swim across the England Channel in mid-July. He is doing it to raise funds for Marissa Boyan, left, who has been battling a brain tumor for seven years. Click photo for larger image.

No Pennsylvanian has swum across the English Channel. Brent McAuliffe is determined to be the first.

McAuliffe of Canonsburg will leave for England July 16, his 26th birthday. He hopes to hit the water in Dover a few days later and eventually disembark near Calais, France.

Completing the grueling 21-mile crossing is incentive enough for many swimmers. Not for McAuliffe, who became an assistant swimming coach at Pitt at the first of the month.

He is doing this to raise funds for and awareness of Marissa Boyan, a friend since childhood who has been dealing with a brain tumor for nearly seven years.

Boyan, 25, is a seventh-grade language arts teacher in the Bethel Park district and an avid athlete. According to her father, Bill Boyan, she initially had surgery in November 2000.

"They got about 80 percent of it then," he said. "The tumor is not growing, it seems to be shrinking.

"The good news is it's benign, it hasn't spread ... but it can't be in the brain."

His daughter recently returned to her Canonsburg home after a stay at a rehabilitation facility. She is continuing to rehab and have chemotherapy.

To enhance her well-being and help ease hospital costs, McAuliffe has helped set up the Marissa Boyan Scholarship Fund. There also is a Web site -- mboyanfund.homestead.com.

He is doing what he can for a woman he had met nearly two decades ago, when they were youth swimmers at the Washington (Pa.) YMCA.

McAuliffe went on to become a seven-time WPIAL and one-time PIAA champion at McGuffey High School, before transferring to a prep school in Florida for his senior year. He then swam at the University of Georgia.

Boyan was a swimmer and runner at Canon-McMillan and Kenyon College.

She is quite appreciative of McAuliffe, and of the general public for its response to her.

"I think [McAuliffe's attempt at the Channel swim] is awesome," Boyan said through her father. "It makes me feel that in some way I am motivating him to do this.

"I feel blessed that so many people have expressed concern [through cards, letters and prayers]. That helps keep me positive and motivated to work hard in rehabilitation."

Boyan hopes to return to the classroom and as a coach with the Bethel Park girls' cross country team this fall.

McAuliffe is encouraging her to do that as he prepares for his aquatic journey.

"In no way is this about me," he said. "I would do anything to have her in the shape she should be. I want to see her swimming again, running again and teaching again.

"Doing this may help her get through."

His is a daunting physical undertaking replete with jellyfish, chilly water, powerful currents, cramps and formidable odds.

About 7,700 have attempted it and 748 have succeeded.

The fastest crossing took 7¹/₂ hours; the average is 16. "I'm hoping for 10 to 12 hours," McAuliffe said. "If I'm under 10, I will be very happy.

"But I don't care how long I'm in the water. The only way they'll pull me out is if I'm blue."

McAuliffe has been training for six months at the Mt. Lebanon High School and municipal pools and at Pitt. He said he is in optimum shape physically. But the Channel between his starting point and would-be finish line is 21 miles only in a geographic sense. Natural conditions make this a lengthier excursion.

"I can swim about 40,000 yards in a straight line," McAuliffe said.

"The problem with the Channel is the elements, which don't allow you to swim in a straight line. I'll be happy if I swim [only] 25 miles."

So as to more equitably distribute the workload on his limbs, McAuliffe plans to swim freestyle and backstroke.

The Channel might seem like a sauna compared with what McAuliffe endured in September, when he traversed the 2 miles between Alcatraz and San Francisco. He swam alongside the first girl with Down's syndrome to complete that trip.

"I was going slow. I couldn't leave her," McAuliffe said.

"The water was 51 degrees, 20 degrees colder than the Channel. I ended up with hypothermia but didn't go to the hospital."

Tackling the English Channel will cost him about $5,000, including $3,500 to rent a 2,500-pound boat to accompany him. McAuliffe also had to purchase airline tickets and pay fees to the Channel Swimming Association, the governing body for these endeavors. He must have a CSA representative on his boat.

That vessel will be little more than a lifeline. McAuliffe said the CSA does not allow a competitor to wear a wet suit, touch the boat or have contact with anyone on board.

"You need something, you throw a bottle and they throw it back," he said.

McAuliffe already was in a transitional state. He quit his job with an engineering firm in January, and the Pitt position required him to resign as an assistant with the Canon-McMillan and Mt. Lebanon high swimming programs and the Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club.

He also has applied to graduate school at Pitt.

Though his workouts are strenuous, McAuliffe recently cut back to one a day in an effort to gain 15 pounds. He needs the strength.

Bill Boyan is still amazed that McAuliffe will attempt the Channel swim.

"When I found out, it was, 'He wants to do what?' But if you ask if I know anyone who could successfully swim the English Channel, I'd say Brent McAuliffe.

"And if you ask do I know anyone who can beat a brain tumor, it would be Marissa Boyan.

"I see her at rehab and it breaks my heart on the one hand. But to see her determination and heart ... she never quits."