7 Apr 2025
Caroline Frith has London Marathon, a half marathon and half iron man in Poland lined up – despite constant chemotherapy for stage four secondary breast cancer.
Paul Imrie
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Caroline Frith raised £33,000 through her efforts two years ago, and is hoping to raise as much as she can again in 2025.
Vet Caroline Frith is preparing for a gruelling round of fund-raising challenges – three years on from an incurable cancer diagnosis.
Caroline, 47, will tackle the London Marathon on 27 April – two years on from a previous personal-best run in the event – before a half marathon in May and a half iron man event in Warsaw in June.
She is aiming to raise thousands of pounds more for a cancer charity that has been supporting her ongoing treatment.
She credits Maggie’s Barts Hospital centre with helping her mental and emotional health while receiving ongoing chemotherapy for stage four secondary breast cancer – a recurrence of the primary breast cancer she underwent treatment for in 2014.
The cancer has metastasised to her brain, bones, spine, skull and pelvis and she was given a five-year prognosis in February 2022.
Although she is undergoing constant chemotherapy at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts) in London, and is no longer practising as a vet with employer The Goddard Veterinary Group, she is once again determined to push herself to raise as much as she can.
She said: “My treatment means that like many people with side effects, I will wake up and my joints are stiff like an old lady, but once I get going, I’m okay. I refuse to allow cancer to stop me from doing what I want to do.
“I need reasons to get out of bed in the morning, and continuing to push my body and stay as fit as possible not only gives me that, but it definitely improves my mood enormously and reduces the many side effects from my ongoing treatment regime.”
In 2023, Caroline raised £33,000 for Maggie’s after tackling the marathon in three hours and 27 minutes – and smashing her £3,000 target.
Caroline will follow the London Marathon with the Hackney Half on 18 May and the Warsaw 70.3 half iron man in Poland a month later, where she is aiming to finish a 1.2 mile open water swim, 56-mile bike ride and another half marathon.
She will be supported all the way by husband Ian, and proud children Eric, 13, and Matilda, 16. Matilda will accompany her on the Hackney run.
Caroline admitted the “the physical challenge is becoming harder”, it took longer to recover from training, and her speed was not what it was, but she needed to have “goals to work towards” as treatment continued.
She said: “I am not super human, nor am I in the best of health, so none of this will come easily to me. Mentally I am still tough, but physically less so.
“The more money I raise, the more I will be incentivised to head outside to train – so please dig deep.
“All this obviously comes with the proviso that I can’t predict what is going to happen with my health – or my feet – between now and June, but I will give it my best shot.”
Maggie’s offers free expert support to people with cancer at Barts and 23 other centres across the UK.
Victoria Curran, Maggie’s Barts centre head, said: “It is incredible to see Caroline continue to complete her goals and do what she loves.”
Caroline has set up a JustGiving page – Caroline’s 2025 Marathon of Madness – for donations.
