Elaine Morton, 48, was diagnosed with a germ cell tumour in 1993 when aged 15 and underwent emergency surgery to save her life followed by months of intensive chemotherapy.
Despite having faced and living with a number of long-term side effects from her cancer as a teen and its treatment, including being diagnosed with breast cancer aged 31, Elaine is determined to make a difference to other children and young people facing a diagnosis in the future.
She has been raising funds for CCLG: The Children & Young People’s Cancer Association by taking on three long-distance running events, beginning with the Naseby 1645, which saw her tackle 16.45 miles “in the wettest, most appalling weather imaginable”.
She said:
I’ve run it before, but this year it was snowing and sleeting at the start. It was about two degrees Celsius, but it felt like minus six.
Elaine then ran the 20-mile Ashby 20 in March, before deciding to run her first marathon, in Blackpool, only weeks before the event on April 25.
During the marathon, she had to contend with extreme pain, linked to the physical impact of the treatment she received for childhood cancer, to finish the 26.2-mile course in a time of 3:57.
She explained:
I had lots of pain in the last five miles due to scar tissue related to my childhood cancer surgery. That slowed me down a bit and meant I really had to dig deep mentally. It became extremely painful, very suddenly, but I managed to put it all aside and hobble the last few miles. I'm not very good at being proud of myself, but it takes a real strength of mind to do that. It was a real mental thing to get through that and then get a sub four-hour time.
Elaine said it took a while for the scale of her achievement to sink in, explaining: “To start with, I was in a lot of pain for the day or so after the race, so I didn't get that normal post-race high I normally get.
“I was just waking up in the middle of the night and going, ‘You’ve just ran a marathon’, and then grinning and going back to sleep. It’s been a gradual sinking-in of what I've achieved.
“They say fewer than 1% of the world’s population will run a marathon in their lifetime. I wonder what percentage can say they’ve done it after [having] childhood cancer and then cancer as an adult?”
Elaine was running in solidarity with others affected by childhood cancer, including friends of hers, Heather, whose son Harry, 11, is currently being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and Lorraine, whose 10-year-old daughter Emily passed away from acute myeloid leukaemia in 2009.
She said it was important to her to raise awareness of how childhood cancer is still impacting families, over 30 years after her own diagnosis.
She added: “I’m telling their stories as well and how childhood cancer changes your whole world.
“It's important that people do know that and that the impact is never over.”
Elaine said she was extremely appreciative for the donations she received, which she hopes will help “an amazing charity” in its work funding and leading world-class cancer research and supporting families in their time of need with reliable, trustworthy information resources.
She said:
It's always difficult to ask people for money because you don't know how well-off people are, especially with everything going on in the world. A lot of people haven't got spare cash. It's hard for people to put their hand in their pocket, not because they don't want to but because things are more difficult for people at the moment. So, it's a credit to a lot of the people that I know that have been so generous.
Vicki Brunt, Head of Fundraising at CCLG, said: “We’d like to say a huge well done and thank you to Elaine for her incredible efforts.
“The funds she raised will help us continue to fund groundbreaking research and support children and young people with cancer and their families when they need it most with our award-winning information resources.
“We’re hugely grateful for everything she’s done, including raising vital awareness of our work and the impact of children and young people’s cancer.”
