I'm taking part in Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 2023 to raise money for CANSA Active, who do great work for a cause that's very close to my heart. If you can, please donate to my fundraising project on GivenGain!

I am a Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Stage 4 and Bone Marrow Transplant Survivor. I was diagnosed with NHL in January 2017. A chemotherapy port was inserted, and chemotherapy treatment was started Feb 2017, once every 3 week. I went for chemotherapy once every 3 weeks. Initially stopped running as I thought running was over for me. My husband is also part of our running since when we started. So, I went to support him at races. Continued working as well. Got tired of sitting on the side lines. Started running again for 3 weeks. End of August 2017 was scans were clear. I was cancer free by the Grace of God. I had to go for scans every 3 months. June 2018, it was discovered that the lymph nodes had returned. I was then referred from the Oncologist I had been with to a Haematologist, which was very scary. The Haematologist did his scans and tests and found that the lymph nodes were not as big as originally discovered . We had to monitor only for now as Follicular Cancers are very tricky, if treated too much, it may become drug resistant. We monitored, I continued running, living my life. Even qualified October 2019 to participate in Comrades 2020. It was not meant to be. Covid happened and in June 2020 it was discovered that my spleen was enlarged. Another blow. I had to stay home I was high risk and I also have Diabetes type 1, insulin dependent. I had to undergo intense chemotherapy. Three days in hospital, once every 3 weeks. The idea was to clear the cancer completely and undergo a bone marrow transplant. New bone marrow, new immune system. Continued running right through, even completed the Virtual Cape Town Marathon 42.2km just, just 2 days after my second hospital session. My scans were clear after 2 in hospital sessions. Dr Koornhof advised I need to continue as they wanted to be 100% sure the cancer is gone. I was fed up ,as the side effects were quite severe , but I had to continue. We found that my older sister was 100% match, she was my donor. I had the Bone Marrow Transplant on 26 January 2021.

In October 2021, I joined the Western Cape Transplant Sports Association. Took part in the National Transplant Games in PE Qeberha in July 2022. Took part in the 1500m, 100m sprints and 5km run. Qualified in the 100m sprints event,to represent SA Transplant Sports Association in Perth Australia in April this year. I placed 4th in my event. I'm super grateful for the opportunity I had and gained such wonderful experience and beautiful memories.