27 Apr 2023
Mum-of-two Caroline Frith, who has stage four secondary breast cancer, ran her best-ever time and raised most of any female runner on JustGiving for cancer support charity Maggie’s.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Caroline Frith pictured at the finishing line of the 2023 London Marathon in The Mall.
A vet with incurable cancer is already preparing for her next challenge after running the London Marathon in a personal best time and raising thousands of pounds for a charity supporting her treatment.
Caroline Frith (pictured) was diagnosed with stage four secondary breast cancer – a recurrence of the primary breast cancer she was treated for in 2014 – in May last year.
It has metastasised to her brain and some of her bones, including the spine, skull and pelvis, and she is a year into her five-year prognosis.
Caroline, 45, is determined to live life to the fullest for her two children – Matilda, 14, and Eric, 11 – and husband Ian, 51. Part of that process has been to juggle her ongoing regular targeted treatment at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital with her love for running.
Central to her treatment is Maggie’s, a national cancer support charity that offers psychological and emotional support, which has a centre she attends at Barts.
She asked for one of the charity’s places in the London Marathon, committed to raising a minimum of £3,000 – the same amount it takes to keep Maggie’s at Barts open for one day – and has run more than 380 miles since training began in January.
Not only did she smash her target, raising nearly £23,000 and counting, but she completed what was only her third marathon in her best time yet – three hours and 27 minutes. The money raised meant she was JustGiving’s top female fund-raiser at the event.
Caroline said: “I did the London Marathon 12 years ago, but I run all the time. I belong to a local running club and I run lots of other distances; I just don’t do marathons very often.
“The Maggie’s Centre at Barts is somewhere I go every time I go to the hospital. The people there are just so kind and they really make what is a pretty horrific situation just that little bit less horrific. It is emotional and practical support.
“Until you are a cancer patient, you don’t realise how many hours and how often you are in a hospital, and how important it is to have something like that, that isn’t clinical and has really got nothing to do with the actual treatment.
“It is somewhere I can go and regroup; to have a cup of tea before coming home again.”
The Goddard Veterinary Group vet was sent on her marathon journey by her family, and they and friends were stationed around the course to offer her encouragement.
She was accompanied every step of the way by vet friend and former work colleague Jose Rodríguez, who she describes as “an exceptionally brilliant runner” and who had completed the Boston Marathon only the week before in a time of two hours 38 minutes.
On the London Marathon experience, she said: “There is nothing like it. Even in the gap of 12 years of not doing it, it is even bigger and even more people come out. It is like a 26-mile street party.
“Everyone is screaming your name. I had people in about 18 different spots. I didn’t see them all by any means, but I knew they were there. It just makes such a big difference.”
Although she said she will not be doing any more fund-raising events, Caroline will be taking part in Swim Serpentine in September – a two-mile swim across the Hyde Park lake.
Despite undergoing chemotherapy treatment, she completed the RideLondon 100-mile cycle event last year. Completion – with the marathon – of the three landmark London events would mean she receives the London Classics medal.
She said: “I absolutely have to go and swim two miles in The Serpentine so I can get the medal. I did [RideLondon] last May in the middle of chemo, but that was because I had been training for it for six months.
“When I entered it, I didn’t know I was going to be having chemotherapy. I had been training for so long, there was no way I wasn’t going to do it, so I did it.”
On the rigours of managing training and her treatment, Caroline said: “I have been having cancer treatment for the past nine years, so it is hard to know how I would feel without it. It’s all I’ve known for the nine years.
“The treatment I am on is called targeted treatment, and the side effects are no way near as bad as chemotherapy. So, I just had the normal aches, pains and niggles you get when you try to increase your mileage.
“I feel that exercise really helps with the side effects; even if I am a bit stiff and achy, going out for a run just makes it better rather than worse.”
She added: “I am living as normal a life as I possibly can. That is all I can do really.
“I have got young kids, so I can’t just go off and travel the world, and have some bucket list and do all these amazing things, because I have to be here for the kids, and I want to be here for the kids.
“I try to keep things normal and do the things I enjoy. All these things sound a bit crazy, but actually it is what I enjoy doing.”
Victoria Curran, who is Maggie’s Barts centre head, said: “It was incredible to see Caroline complete her goal of running the London Marathon and do what she loves.
“Her choosing to support Maggie’s in this way helps to ensure that Maggie’s can be there for people with cancer.”
Caroline’s JustGiving page is still open for donations and she also has a blog. She has also written about her previous experiences in Vet Times.
