Sophie G – Canberra Times Marathon Festival

“I DID IT!!! 42.2 km for my 42nd year alive and over $1000 raised for Bowel Cancer Australia! What an incredible journey, but it didn’t start 20 weeks ago with marathon training. It started4.5 years ago when I had Polly the Polyp aka a large bowel tumour, the right side of my bowel, and 29 lymph nodes removed. I had a very close call with bowel cancer in 2021 when doctors found a 7.5 cm bowel tumour during the middle of COVID lockdown. I was very lucky that despite doctors originally thinking the tumour was cancerous, it was Stage 2 precancerous, so they had caught it just in time. I knew four other people the same age as me all diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer around that same time.

Unfortunately, they have all since passed away. So now as the lucky one still here, I made it my mission to help raise awareness of bowel cancer. After bowel surgery, I needed to walk every day and could barely make it around the block.

After a few months of walking, I decided to challenge myself to a 5 km race. I thought it was so far, but over the last few years, I’ve kept going further and further. Running with half a bowel sometimes presents its own challenges, but it is always a great conversation starter to raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer, and I am just grateful to still be out there running. This year I turn 42, so I decided to run a 42.2 km marathon in Canberra to celebrate and use it as a chance to fundraise for Bowel Cancer Australia. I was so grateful to receive so much support and so many donations for this worthy cause!” ~ Sophie

If you were inspired by Sophie’s awareness and fundraising efforts and would like to support Bowel Cancer Australia through a sporting event, please get in touch with us through our webform.