Ised £120million for r... and saved me too
so there would be nowhere in me where cancer could live. That’s what kept me going.”
Today, Nina is 63 and cancer free. But she says having the disease paved the way to the happiness she now has.
She smiles: “It was the end of a life – but the beginning of a new life.
“As soon as I had cancer I met my husband, I had my daughter, and Walk the Walk flourished.
“So it was a very difficult place, but it put me in a position where my life
changed for the better.” Through the
October is
Breast Cancer
Awareness Month, when survivors share their stories to help those going through treatment and to encourage others to find out more about it.
And it’s not just the women – of around 55,000 diagnosed every year, 370 are men.
The next London MoonWalk is on May 16 next year, but it is not Walk the Walk’s only event. As well as the upcoming Dublin and New York marathons, there is an Arctic Challenge next year.
See charity she met husband Guy Aubertin, and they have an 11-year-old daughter.
Nina says: “I didn’t have a job when I got the all-clear. It’s quite scary. I felt lost in the world – so I just kept on walking, and that was a mixed blessing.
“In a way I’d found what I was going to do, but I didn’t recognise it yet.”
Her charity work has led to a friendship with Prince Charles, who she met
in 2001 when she and 40
other women from Walk the Walk were invited to Highgrove.
They all arrived in their bras. Nina, wearing a conical creation, decided to hug the Prince – and three years later he became a patron of the charity.
Nina, who will walk her 20th New York Marathon next month, says: “His ethos is very much in line with ours.
“He has this profound belief that as human beings we can do so much for ourself, we can be in charge of our own destiny. He’s a wonderful man.” Nina says her cancer taught her to make time for those things she values.
“Spending time with my daughter, that’s the most precious thing for me,” she says. But she admits her whole trajectory has been “bizarre”.
She says: “I’d never have found the tumour had I not done that fundraiser.
“That’s strange, as it’s such a bizarre thing to dream. If you have a good idea, hold on to it – you just never know…”