National Masters swimming champion Beth Eldridgeovercame a brain tumor to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the 2010 Short Course National Championships in Atlanta in May. Eldridge, although healthy now, suffered two brain tumors in the past four years. She first noticed the tumors in 2006 after blacking out on the final lap of the 100 meter butterfly competition at the national championships in Coral Springs, Fla. Eldridge still competed while undergoing treatment. "Competition really helped me," Eldridge said. "For me it was normal to go to swim practice. Swimming kept my mind off the treatment."

After Eldridge was diagnosed with her 2nd brain tumor, her swim team at Warrensburg High School in Warrensburg, Mo., held a secret fundraiser selling turquoise bracelets. The money helped fund Eldridge's first trip to Johns Hopkins University to see a neurological specialist. At the end of the school year, the swimmers presented Eldridge with two bracelets (one for her husband, Bill, and one for herself). Underneath the bracelets was a check to help Eldridge with travel expenses to Johns Hopkins University. "It is by far the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me," Eldridge said. "The gesture renewed my determination. I told my husband that night that I was going to do everything I could to make sure those girls took the bracelets off their wrists because I was healthy and not because something bad happened to me."

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