Brissie detective reveals precious story behind playlist for New York Marathon tribute run

Brisbane woman Kaylene O’Kane is taking on the New York Marathon this weekend to raise money and awareness for a cause very close to her.

Kaylene O’Kane and her Aunty Tania.

Brisbane woman Kaylene O’Kane is taking on the New York Marathon this weekend to raise money and awareness for a cause very close to her.

Ms O’Kane who works as a detective for the Queensland Police Service said she was inspired to achieve her lifelong dream of running a marathon after her aunty was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2018.

“Running in the New York Marathon is something that wanted to do, but I needed a reason to get inspired to train for it,” Ms O’Kane said.

“When my Aunty Tania was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I decided to have some genetic testing as the disease can be hereditary, and they found I had the BRCA1 gene.

“When you have the BRCA1 mutation you have a 75 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 45 per cent chance of ovarian cancer.

“I ended up having a preventive, prophylactic double mastectomy.

“This disease has affected a lot of people close to me, including my primary influence for living a healthy and active lifestyle, Aunty Tania”.

O’Kane did not just want to receive donations for her marathon run, she gave donors the chance to pick a song to form her playlist for the gruelling 42.2-kilometre run.

While most songs on the playlist are favourites and inspirational tracks, one of her brothers tried to include the dreaded beep test — a 20-minute audio piece used for multistage fitness testing, sure to conjure nightmares of high school Phys Ed.

Brisbane woman Kaylene O’Kane is taking on the New York Marathon.

O’Kane said some people were very literal with their song suggestions.

“The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), Divinyls – Pleasure and Pain, Bon Jovi – Living on a Prayer, and a bit of the Spice Girls of course,” O’Kane said.

But Aunty Tania was the only one who would get to choose what song Kaylene crossed the finish line to, Hey Ya by OutKast.

“I’m really proud of Kaylene for running the marathon and raising money for such an important cause,” Aunty Tania said.

O’Kane also wanted to thank her Uncle Kevin who has been coaching her to this moment.

“He’s been running marathons for years and put together the training plan for me and checked in and coached me through it all,” O’Kane said.

The New York City Marathon is one of the pre-eminent marathons in the world, and one of the six World Marathon Majors.

More than 50,000 runners from over 150 countries are expected to participate in this year’s race.

Kaylene’s GoFundMe page can be found here.