An S-band high-gradient accelerating structure is designed for a proton therapy linear accelerator (linac) to accommodate the new development of compact,singleroom facilities and ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy.To optimize the design,an efficient optimization scheme is applied to improve the simulation efficiency.An S-band accelerating structure with 2856 MHz is designed with a low beta of 0.38,which is a difficult structure to achieve for a linac accelerating proton particles from 70 to 250 MeV,as a high gradient up to 50 MV/m is required.A special design involving a dual-feed coupler eliminates the dipole field effect.This paper presents all the details pertaining to the design,fabrication,and cold test results of the S-band high-gradient accelerating structure.