Paula: My girl’s cancer fight was toughest trial yet
PAULA Radcliffe says the last two years helping her daughter cope with fighting cancer have been the most gruelling of her life.
Paula, 47, was devastated when Isla, 14, was diagnosed with a rare germ cell ovarian tumour.
Since the news, Paula has been a constant presence at Isla’s side.
Her daughter has undergone chemotherapy, MRI scans and blood tests.
And just last week she was told treatment is helping her stay cancer-free.
But with regular check-ups still required Paula says it’s the toughest marathon she has “ever had to endure”.
“The last two years have been the most gruelling of my life,” she admits. “I’ll never forget the fear when someone tells you something is wrong with your baby. It is the scariest thing in the world. “But the main thing is Isla’s doing really well. At the moment, Isla is cancer-free and fingers crossed it stays that way.
“The tumour she has is very rare, affecting one in 200,000 women.
“You have it from birth and then when you hit puberty it starts to reproduce. The doctors were so good about it and reassured us it’s nothing to do with what we’d done, where we had lived or what we’d eaten.
“It’s entirely treatable and has a good prognosis. Once we’d got over the shock, we could focus on the treatment and what we were going to do to get through it.”
Due to Covid restrictions it was decided Paula would be with Isla in the hospital, while Gary was taking care of their son Rafael.
She said: “Isla is recovering very well and actually ran her first 10k recently. The best thing is seeing her back to full health.”
To that end, Paula had been helping TV star Mark Wright prepare for today’s London Marathon. But last night Mark was forced to pull out of the race due to an injured calf muscle. He said he was “absolutely gutted”.
Paula and Mark are supporting the Flora Get Towns Active campaign, which aims to encourage people to take steps towards a more active lifestyle.