Breast Cancer UK fundraiser hits PB at the London Marathon just four years after breast cancer treatment

Carole-Anne, originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire, said: “It was four years and a day from my breast cancer surgery. If you’d told me then I'd be running a PB and ‘good for age’ four years later in the London Marathon, I would not have believed it. During the run, I kept thinking how pleased I was to still be here and be able to do something to prevent more people having to go through it. So I felt very lucky.”  

Crossing the finish line in three hours and 55 minutes, she was “thrilled to get round in one piece” – especially considering her first marathon experience running the Boston Marathon in the cold and driving rain in Lincolnshire left her needing hot tea and a recovery blanket in the medical area after the race.  

“After my first marathon experience, I wanted to get round and feel okay. And I did. Don't get me wrong, I was really tired and very glad to see the finish, but I kept running across the line and walked away with a smile on my face. I didn't have to lie down. I didn't need medical attention. I even ran up the steps to Piccadilly to meet my daughter!” 

Describing the event “as a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life”, Carole-Anne didn’t want it to end.  

She recalls being surprised to pass another mile marker after being distracted by the brilliant spectator signs and running past iconic landmarks such as Tower Bridge and Parliament Square, all of which spurred her on.  

“I was so thrilled to see the finish but also didn't want it to end. I had two thoughts at the same time: At last, I can stop running, but also, I actually want to savour this moment because it is so good. It was just the most brilliant experience. The crowd, the organisation, the atmosphere. People had told me the crowds keep you going and they really did,” she said.  

Carole-Anne, who relocated temporarily to Singapore last year for work, found the middle section of the route around the Isle of Dogs the hardest. That’s when she called on her mental resilience and reminded herself that she’d raised over £2,100 for Breast Cancer UK.  

“In the last 15k your mind starts playing games with you, so I started thinking about the money I was raising, and it kept me going."

While her fellow runners suffered with the hot weather, which reached 22 degrees on the day, Carole-Anne, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at James Cook University, wasn’t breaking much of a sweat.  

Singapore is known for its hot and humid weather, with average temperatures in the high 20s and humidity up to 99%, making her training very challenging, with early morning and late-night runs required to avoid the worst of the heat.  

“Lots of people were talking about the brutal heat and they’d put sprinklers along the route but I was running to the edge of the road to avoid them as I didn’t want to get wet and cold. I felt like I was barely even sweating as there was low humidity. It was such a joy after training in the tropics,” she added.  

Her key to such a successful race was her training with the Runna app*. She added: “The training worked. The discipline paid off and I felt good. There were days when I more or less had to wake myself up off the sofa to go out for a run before I went to bed but knew I’d feel so bad about not doing it if I let it slip, so I pushed on and trusted the programme and that seemed to work.”  

Her friends and family were dotted along the route cheering her on and afterwards congregated at a hub set up by Runna, where people tucked into pizza and shared their experience with other runners.  

Apart from being a bit stiff the day after, Carole-Anne felt great and when she returned to Singapore a few days later, took part in her local Parkrun. She will soon begin training for the Sydney Marathon in August, and she’s heading into this marathon with a lot more confidence.  

“It sounds like a cliché but one of the things I say to students is that ‘you can always do more than you think.'"

I didn't really take that advice myself. I didn't necessarily think I would even get to the end of the race, that I could actually run a marathon and feel okay. I thought that maybe my joints and tendons wouldn't be strong enough even if I trained, that maybe I’m too old for this. But it all worked and the training app pretty much predicted my actual finish time", she added.

Her ‘good for age’ classification will hopefully allow her to qualify for entry into next year's marathon. But either way, Carole-Anne already entered the ballot and is hoping this won't be the last time she runs the world-famous marathon.  

If Carole-Anne’s story has inspired you to take on a challenge of your own to support Breast Cancer UK, simply click here to find out how you can get involved in your own fundraising effort, or email the team at [email protected] to get started.