The members and committee of Cork Triathlon Club are delighted to throw their support behind a fund raising effort for the Edward Showler Foundation led by Jane O’Keeffe. The fund raiser will take the form of a sea plunge followed by a sauna all at one of our favourite swim spots Sandycove, Kinsale. We are inviting members to donate here come down to Sandycove on the morning of December 6th at 10:00am have a quick sea dip, rediscover their fingers and toes and have a chat in the sauna after.
This is our very small way to honour Jane, express our friendship and appreciation for who she is, and raise much-needed funds to advance the cancer diagnosis and treatment of Clear Cell Sarcoma (CCS). One in 6.5 million people develops Clear Cell Sarcoma (CCS) usually between the ages of 20 and 40. There is currently no effective treatment. Research is essential. The Edward Showler Foundation specifically advances research in this rare cancer (CCS) and is a priority for Jane, her husband Graham and of course her daughter Roisin, aged 4 years old. It may not help Jane, given her advanced disease, but it will absolutely be of benefit to other CCS patients in the future.
A Little Bit about Jane
Jane on the left of the picture
Jane O Keeffe grew up swimming as her primary sport. She circumnavigated Sandycove Island in 24 minutes in 1999. This was with 2 hands. She was 13 yrs old.
In 2021, when pushing the buggy belonging to her beautiful baby, Roisin, Jane discovered a lump. After a thorough investigation of this rare, aggressive form of cancer, Jane’s right hand was amputated. Jane donated her hand to this groundbreaking research.. It is something she feels very passionately about.
Jane comes from a family of great sporting enthusiasts, and she is well-known among the triathlon, swimming and running communities.
When passing through an airport in 2012, Jane saw a person with an ironman bag and was intrigued. She became a member of Cork Triathlon Club (CTC), and her decade-long triathlon career commenced! Among the many sprint and Olympic distance triathlons where we enjoyed her company, Jane completed the full Ironman in Maastricht in 2016, followed by two 70.3 distances in Ireland, and our club race, the Lost Sheep, in 2019 with her great friend and CTC teammate Eimear Donnelly.
Meanwhile, in between all these triathlons, there were more challenges to be explored. Members will recall that, during the dark winter months, Jane would casually run a full marathon distance each Wednesday, just before joining the rest of us in our usual coached club session with Brendan O’Neill. She would then complete her unimaginable, “long run” at the weekend. As a result, Jane successfully nailed the notorious Marathon des Sables in 2017.
After Jane’s hand amputation in 2022, Jane continued to push barriers aside. She successfully swam the Strait of Messina from Sicily to mainland Italy, took part in the Cobh Jailbreak triathlon, and last year, 2024, following surgery and recurrence of metastases, finished the 13km Henley Thames Swim with a great friend to fundraise for The Edward Showler Foundation.
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