Paula Radcliffe shares emotional clip of her daughter, Isla, 18, crossing the London Marathon finishing line after battling ovarian cancer age 13
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Paula Radcliffe showed her support for her daughter, Isla, as she crossed the line of the London Marathon on Sunday after recovering from cancer.
Isla, 18, was diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer at the age of 13 in August 2000, which left her needing weeks of gruelling chemotherapy.
And she took part in the 26.2 mile race to raise money for Children with Cancer UK to help families going through the heartache and trauma they experienced.
As the brave teenager took her final steps, proud Paula shared a clip to her Instagram Stories and zoomed in on her daughter as she finished the race at 3.02pm.
Paula can be heard shouting 'go Isla, go Isla, as she wrote alongside her clip: 'when your little girl has had few finish lines - but she has her own. Well done Isla'.
Paula, who will be commentating for the BBC, said earlier this week: 'It's an extremely emotional place to be anyway, when you see people turn that corner on the Mall and they realise they've done it - but when it's your little girl doing it…'
She underwent during the Covid pandemic - meaning that Paula was the only member of her family who was allowed to be at her side as she fought the disease.
Paula's father Peter, who had helped launch her on the road to success, died just weeks earlier aged 73 after falling sick while restrictions were in place.
Paula - who competed in four Olympic Games and won gold in the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 - told how her most gruelling marathon was dealing with Isla's diagnosis and its aftermath over a tormenting two-year period.
She said: 'I'll never forget the fear when someone tells you something is wrong with your baby. It is the scariest thing in the world.'
Paula told how she took Isla to the paediatrician after she experienced a number of symptoms including chronic stomach pain, loss of breath and bleeding.
She said this week: 'It then moved very quickly. On the Tuesday she visited the doctor, we had a scan on the Wednesday and one week later we were already in the hospital starting the first round of chemo.'
Describing how the experience was far more challenging than any Olympic competition, Paula has spoken of her feelings of 'panic and helplessness'.
She said: 'It's the hardest thing a parent can go through.
'You can support them and be with them the whole way through, but you can't do that chemo for them.
'It's horrible to watch your child suffering through that, but at the same time we believed that if it felt bad, it was killing the cancer.'
She added: 'There are things you're not ready for - either going through it or as a parent.'
Isla's cancer is said to affect just one in 200,000 women.
Paula said: 'You have it from birth and then when you hit puberty it starts to reproduce.'
Isla discussed her cancer diagnosis in an interview with The Times four years ago.
She told how she was initially relieved to identify what was wrong with her: I thought if we can solve this then I won't have those problems - having mood swings and being tired all the time were not normal but it meant I could make sense of them.
'I didn't want to be told they didn't know what it was or that it was normal because I didn't want to carry on with the same pain and tiredness.'
Describing her treatment, Isla went on: 'I cried the most when I lost my hair
'The chemo does not affect you much on the outside but losing my hair was a big thing.'
To help her cope, her brother Raphael would allow his sister to blow-dry his hair to compensate for not being able to style her own.
Isla said she was grateful for the attention her mother gave her: 'Just dealing with me, just taking time and making me the priority…And my brother didn't get as much time as he normally does or my grandma.
'She was always there for me even if I snapped at her, she would not leave.'
Paula and husband Gary Lough, a former middle distance runner and athletics coach, moved to the south of France in 2005 and live in a village just outside Monte Carlo with Isla and son Raphael, 14.
The couple met at Loughborough University and Gary helped coach Paula on the road to glory winning a series of major titles and marathons before retiring 10 years ago.
Gary went on to work with Olympic legend Sir Mo Farah while Paula's most memorable victory in London saw her set a world record time of two hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds.
No woman ran faster until Brigid Kosgei of Kenya finally broke the record in 2019.
Just a year later, Isla received her devastating diagnosis.
Due to Covid restrictions it was decided Paula would be with Isla in the hospital, while Gary was taking care of their son Raphael.
Paula said: 'We had to pick one parent to go and we had to stick with the same parent all the way through
'There was a huge amount of mother's guilt for the fact that you have to focus more on one child for that period of time.'
Isla was given the all clear but has had to have regular check-ups and underwent a scare in 2023.
Paula said of concerned medics: 'They saw something on the MRIs. So they called us in and said, 'We're really sorry, we're going to have to go in and look at it because she only has one fallopian tube left and we're pretty sure it's on there'.'
Isla underwent three-hour surgery before doctors revealed their concerns were unfounded.
Paula said: 'That was really hard and I think, emotions-wise, that being thrown back into it was something that I struggled with because I think that was at a time where... I guess it's the emotions, isn't it? When you just feel like everything's just getting on top of you.'
Now Isla has turned her attention to Isla's race on Sunday when she will be running to raise funds and awareness for Children with Cancer UK - a charity Paula has championed since her family went through their ordeal.
But Paula told how she had to rein her daughter in when it came to preparing for the race - so she could concentrate on winning a place at university.
She told Isla she wanted her to 'concentrate on her exams' and added: 'She's doing her final year of school ready for uni so she's under a whole lot of pressure.
'I'm OK with her just doing it to finish it and not really pushing hard.'
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