Cork Triathlon Club and friends are taking part in a swim to raise funds for The Edward Showler Foundation which is a charity that was set up by Edward's family and friends in Ed's memory with the aim of making a difference to young people, like Ed who have been affected by Sarcoma and particularly Clear Cell Sarcoma. Ed sadly passed away, on June 11th 2017, 8 months after his initial diagnosis. There are currently no effective treatments for Clear Cell Sarcoma.

In December 2021, Jane O'Keeffe a long time member of CTC received a diagnosis of Clear Cell Sarcoma. This diagnosis has great impacted Jane's family and friends and her CTC family to whom she still has a very close relationship with. Her diagnosis resulted in an amputation of her right forearm in 2021, metastases to her axilla and liver in 2023, surgery and ablation to these areas in 2024 and further metastases to the axilla, liver and scapula area in 2025.

Clear Cell Sarcoma is an ultra rare sarcoma with a 1 in 6.5 million chance of diagnosis. Since the inception of The Edward Showler Foundation the traction around Clear Cell Sarcoma has grown and there is finally a group of amazing scientists aiming to understand what causes the disease and eventually how to treat it. The research has all been untaken with proceeds from fundraising.

In the last few years there have been advances in the knowledge of what causes CCS by the scientists who are directly funded by The Edward Showler Foundation. Some notable achievements to date are the gathering and analysis of the largest sample of CCS tissue samples globally, understanding the Biology behind CCS and amazingly that there are in fact subtypes of CCS.

All this information is key to the eventual aim of finding a treatment for the currently untreatable disease. Eds parents continue selflessly to fundraise and drive this research which gives hope to so many CCS patients that there will eventually be a treatment and understanding of this disease. The research has been driven by fundraising from Ed's parents and every breakthrough that has been made is a testament to all their hard work.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.