Life's challenges can be overwhelming at times, but don't tell that to Jeff Keith. The longtime Fairfield resident is a man of remarkable courage and resolve – perhaps not always in that order.

At 12, he suffered a broken right knee while playing youth hockey at the Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport. "Somebody knocked me into the boards," he recalled. A biopsy revealed a malignant tumor on his knee, and doctors at St. Vincent's Medical Center amputated his right leg above the knee – on Christmas Eve.

There were few pity parties in the household of Donna and the late William Keith (whom Jeff describes as "a lifelong IBM lifer"). In the ensuing 19 months, Jeff endured an aggressive program of chemotherapy, but he was back skiing within six weeks of his diagnosis and later captained the ski team at Fairfield Prep. At Boston College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English, Keith was a lacrosse goalie as a junior and senior.

"I wake up every day lucky to be alive," he said on a recent afternoon at the Las Vetas Coffee Shop in town. "You try to give back... It's in my DNA to give back."

Give back? Oh, yes.

Interspersed with getting his MBA at the University of Southern California and embarking on a career selling high-yield bonds at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and UBS, Keith has dedicated a significant portion of the past 25 years helping cancer survivors. His accomplishments boggle the mind:

In 1985, he ran across America, Boston to Los Angeles, covering some 3,300 miles over an eight-month period. His Herculean effort raised $1 million for the American Cancer Society. "You were a role model for those youngsters," then-First Selectman Jacky Durrell told Keith after they visited Fairfield schools together. "You've become one of our favorite sons."

Two years later, he co-founded – and participated in – the 13.5-mile Swim Across the Sound, which through its history has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research at St. Vincent's. Jeff is a bit vague on the year, but he met Karin, the woman who became his wife and the mother of their three children, at a Swim Across the Sound. She was an Olympic-caliber swimmer who captained the University of North Carolina team and participated in the 1988 Olympic trials. "She's still the best athlete in our family," he says with a grin.

More recently, he co-founded two other non-profit organizations that provide support for cancer survivors, Swim Across America and the Connecticut Challenge.

For the latter, cyclists of all ages and skill levels will participate in rides of 12, 25, 50, 75 or 100 miles on Saturday, July 24, raising funds from sponsors to support their efforts. The rides start and finish in Fairfield. (To learn about riding, volunteering or donating, go here.)

Since its founding in 2005, the Connecticut Challenge has supported cancer programs at the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, the Bennett Cancer Center in Stamford, the Children's Medical Center in Hartford, UConn Health Center in Farmington, St. Vincent's in Bridgeport and others throughout the state. The goal, Keith says, is to "touch every cancer survivor in Connecticut," a number estimated to be in the 120,000 range.

"Very little money goes into (cancer) survivorship," he said. "How do you get people to give to an organization with a social impact? I was lucky because I have a reason to."

Keith views the Connecticut Challenge as "a means to an end" – a reference to the Cancer Survivorship Center that he plans to launch in downtown Fairfield. Negotiations with the building's owner are ongoing. There, survivors will participate in exercise classes, nutrition classes, support group meetings and more. "In Fairfield, we anticipate impacting the lives of 300 to 400 survivors," he said.