Rowing Loses One of Its Own

Some stories, you just know they’re going to turn out all right.

They’re sad, their outlook is terrible, but you know they’ll get better.

There’s got to be a surprise happy ending, you think.

Because I hadn’t heard Jill Costello’s story before, I had thought I was listening to that kind of tale Saturday morning at crew practice.

Costello seemed like she had everything going for her. A coxswain for one of the top crew programs in the country, she led her California Golden Bears boat to a fourth-place finish at NCAAs three years in a row—twice in the varsity four and once in the first varsity eight.

So when I heard about the part where she got stage IV lung cancer, I figured she would have to recover, or that she must have already recovered.

I was wrong.

At only 21 years of age, Costello went to the hospital last year with what she thought was a stomachache—only to be diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

She had never smoked a day in her life.

But impending death wasn’t going to stop Costello from living—or competing.

A look at Costello’s Twitter account reveals the following entry from May 25 of this year: “Practice at 10a, CT scans at 2p. Fingers crossed for good news please!!!”

The good news never came.

Fully aware that her days were running out, the coxswain led her crew to a fourth-place finish, pushing Cal to a second-place team finish at the 2010 NCAAs.

A few weeks later at the IRAs, Costello’s inspiration helped the Golden Bears’ men’s team to edge out Washington, the defending national champions, by 0.263 seconds to win the varsity eight national title.

Then on June 24, less than a month after placing fourth at NCAAs, Jill Costello passed away.

Though an ever-growing sport, the rowing community remains a small world, and when someone involved suffers, all are affected.

When Costello passed away, the news did not stay in California.

And now that fall has hit and students have returned to campus, athletes across the country are trying to further her message about lung cancer.

Some knew Costello personally, but many never had the privilege of meeting her; they have simply heard about her story through their shared connection to rowing.

Rowers nationwide have been participating in “Jog for Jill” events, sponsored by the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation.

On October 3, it will be our turn. The Radcliffe crew team will be participating in the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation Walk/Run for “Team Jog for Jill” in order to raise money for lung cancer research, in hopes of improving the survival rate of lung cancer patients from its current figure of 15.5 percent, essentially the same as it was 40 years ago.

For some reason, lung cancer often seems to fly under the radar.

Part of this is likely due to the obvious connection between lung cancer and smoking; for some, it’s difficult to sympathize with those who have a disease they seem to have brought upon themselves.

Unfortunately for people like Costello, while smoking can cause lung cancer, it’s not a prerequisite.

According to a July article in The New York Times, roughly 10 to 15 percent of those diagnosed with lung cancer have never been smokers and are left to suffer punishment for something they never even did.

While courage alone was not enough to keep her alive, Costello’s legacy continues to inspire those who knew her.

“I’ve admired Jill’s spirit since she was a senior at St. Ignatius and I was a freshman,” reflects sophomore rower Scout Moran, a high school teammate of Costello’s. “She was one of the upperclassmen who went to every trouble to make us feel included with her big smile and kind words.”

“I remember watching her in the boathouse, listening to her coach and engaging with her teammates, and she looked so excited to be there,” Moran adds. “While freshmen always look up to seniors on teams, Jill was something special.”

Before our coach Cory Bosworth, a Cal alum like Costello, had finished telling her story, my teammates and I had already silently agreed to participate in the Run, not only because we hoped the money our team could raise would make a difference, but also because we wanted to honor the memory of such a brave athlete.

We knew that we were “Just like Jill” (as her campaign is called), and that this could’ve happened to each and every one of us.

As Costello’s story proves all too well, lung cancer can touch anyone’s life—even a 21-year-old Division I athlete seemingly entering the prime of her life.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.