HONORED HERO

BROOKE SHINNICK

Brooke Shinnick is a 17-year-old senior at Towson High School. She has a twin brother Cameron, who attends Loyola Blakefield. She lives with her mother and father and two cats in Lutherville, MD. Since the age of five, she and Cameron have been competitive swimmers, never taking much time off from practice and staying in top physical shape. Brooke is a distance freestyler who specializes in the mile. She also swims in open water races. Her swimming success put her on the radar for college recruitment for the class of 2022.

In July 2020 Brooke was diagnosed with Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma. She was treated at the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Cancer Center and responded well to chemotherapy and entered remission. Brooke “rang the bell” in December 2020 and is currently still in her first post-treatment year. She counts strong support of her extended family as well as her many friends in the swim community for helping her stay focused on recovery and keeping her connected during the isolation of Covid- 19. “It was extremely hard for me not to regularly attend our already limited Covid swim practices and connect with people I’m used to seeing every day. I really appreciated the effort my teammates made to stay connected. As the end of my treatment neared, they made me a countdown video to mark the days until my last chemo the day before Thanksgiving. In November I finally needed to make the decision to have my hair shaved off. A group of my female teammates, knowing how hard it was for me, waited in the parking lot (because of Covid) to be there when I finished. Their acceptance and jokes really helped me deal with it.”

Today, Brooke continues to monitor her recovery daily and maintain a balanced, healthy lifestyle. She has checkups every three months. She finished her junior year with a 4.0 academic average, and looks forward to returning in person to school after being completely virtual last year. Her favorite class is AP Photography. Photography became Brookes second love after swimming during Covid-19 and her cancer diagnosis. “I started with a basic photography course in school and from there really found I had a knack for it. I took advanced photography last year and this year, will take the AP course. I’m always asking friends to do fashion shoots with me in interesting settings such as the Hampton Mansion gardens or the rooftop of the Rotunda parking garage.” For 2020-21, the Towson High School Art Department awarded Brooke the schoolwide Department Award in Photography. Brooke was cleared to resume her swim training in January 2021 and has set out on a quest to regain her prior form, no small feat after being out of the water a significant amount of time. Each successive competition in which she has participated has shown improvement and Brooke hopes to regain her top times this year.

In July 2021, Brooke verbally accepted an offer to continue her academic and swimming career beginning in fall 2022, from Loyola University Maryland.