Click here to view Danielle’s Fundraising Page
“My Story
On the 27th April 2025 I will run the TCS London Marathon to raise funds for the Oesophageal Patients’ Association (OPA) to repay their kindness for supporting me during my own cancer treatment and recovery and to help them raise vital funds to provide emotional support and dietetic advice to people living with oesophageal cancer and to spread awareness of this cruel condition.
My connection to Oesophageal Cancer and Running
I began running in 2016 and love the physical and mental challenge of it. I started from running parkrun and built up my fitness to run the Manchester Marathon in autumn 2021. At the peak of my fitness in May 2022, I was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer completely out of the blue after noticing a change in my swallow. It was devastating as I have no family history and no explanation why I came to have a 6cm squamous cell carcinoma tumour in my mid-oesophagus. Waiting for the results of the diagnostic scans and MDT reviews was the most fraught and anxious time of my life. Running helped me through this: it was no longer about training to get faster times or run further, my goal was to stay fit for treatment and to look after my mental health. Thankfully, I had been diagnosed early before there was any spread and qualified for curative treatment. I had chemo and radiotherapy in summer 2022 which was brutal – I suffered radiation induced oesophagitis and could no longer eat or drink so needed a feeding tube for nutrition and hydration and morphine to manage my pain. I kept active and the swelling and pain reduced after 6 weeks so I was able to complete The Great North Run in September 2022 with an NG tube 10 days before I had my Ivor Lewis oesophagectomy. I had to hang up my running shoes for a few months to heal from the massive procedure, relearn to eat and get enough nutrition and rebuild my strength to be able to run again. Getting back to running has helped me regain fitness and motivate me, when I improve at running I know my body is healthy. It has been a frustrating and long recovery at times but I am now heathy enough to have run a half marathon again and my times at other distances are getting quicker and close to where I was pre-surgery. My team at the hospital are amazed with my recovery and were so happy for me when I brought them my GNR 2024 medal to clinic to show them. The hospital dieticians are thrilled to be giving sports nutrition advice to a cancer survivor too! I am ready for this marathon challenge!
My recovery has been so positive thanks to my wonderful partner Paul and my children; my friends, work and Scout group; cancer support groups; the incredible team at St James’ hospital, Leeds; and many wonderful charities like the OPA who have provided me with information and support along the journey. At the start of the surgical recovery, I was given a lot of reading material by the OPA which helped me so much when I was learning to eat again. The OPA card that informs restaurants of my limited stomach capacity or that I might need to use their disabled toilets was so helpful to me. When I received an email from the OPA in October looking for people to run TCS London Marathon 2025 for them who had ambition to run the distance, had a personal connection to oesophageal cancer and who would be committed to fundraising, I felt that I would be a great candidate for this and I am thrilled that they have chosen me to run for them and hope to raise them lots of funds!
Please support me on my run and fundraising for my cause. If you are able, please sponsor me any amount is gratefully received but I understand times are hard so if that’s not possible then keep encouraging me as I keep building up my mileage and please share this page and spread some information which may lead to a life-saving early diagnosis for someone else. Not all oesophageal patients are as fortunate as me. :’(
Thank you for visiting my fundraising page and for your support
Danielle xx”
