Clare Ford from Grantham grew up loving sport, playing netball and hockey, and doing track and field athletics. She started running regularly in her thirties. But in her early fifties Clare was stopped in her tracks by a shock diagnosis. Six months into the Covid pandemic she was told she had Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Following treatment, Clare has found her way back to fitness and to running. On 27th April 2025, she will be running the London Marathon, raising funds for Lymphoma Action, the charity which helped her to cope with her diagnosis and treatment.
Understanding the impact of health challenges
Over the eleven years I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve become aware that many women runners over 50 face health challenges. Some have experienced major health setbacks, such as cancer or the need for a hip replacement, which may have a long-term impact on fitness. Others are living with chronic conditions, such as osteoarthritis or Parkinson’s. I’m interested to know how women cope with health challenges. How do they recover and/or adapt? Are they able to stay fit and how do they manage to do this? I knew a bit about Clare before I met her as her son Michael is my gym coach. When we met, I was struck by Clare’s positivity and energy and asked if I could share her story on the blog.
Clare Ford – growing up
Clare was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire and lived there until she was 18. At school Clare loved sport and was always in her PE kit. She played netball and hockey at county level and got through to the Southern England trials for netball. She was just not tall enough to be selected. Clare represented her school at district athletics competitions. She tried nearly all the track and field disciplines. And when she wasn’t doing organised sport, she could often be found playing football in the street with the boys.
Football and netball
Clare’s husband Brendan is from New Zealand. As newlyweds in the early 1990s, they lived in New Zealand for a year. Clare played football there for a season. Back in the UK and living in Peterborough, Clare founded Hampton Ladies Netball. The club became a big part of her life. She was there three or four times a week, training and playing with her team and coaching youngsters. In 2007, she reduced her involvement with the club after her mum was diagnosed with cancer.
Running
After nursing her mother in the last weeks of her life, Clare started to take running more seriously. It became a way of clearing her head as she coped with her bereavement. Her first races were local 10ks in Peterborough. Her first big race was the Reading Half Marathon in 2009. She loved it so much that she did it again the following year. She also ran the Great Eastern Half. In 2014 she ran the London Marathon for one of the RAF charities.
Clare’s cancer diagnosis during Covid-19
I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during Covid in September 2020. I was healthy, relatively fit, so to get a cancer diagnosis came as a bit of a shock.
In 2020, Clare and her family were living in Northamptonshire and she was working in the NHS. Undergoing cancer treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy) during the Covid-19 pandemic was an isolating experience. With a weakened immune system, Clare had to be very careful about avoiding infection, even when there was not a full lockdown. And there were no opportunities to receive face-to-face support or to meet other people facing the same challenges. The Lymphoma Action charity helped Clare to cope through a closed Facebook group and their telephone buddy support service.
Clare kept as fit as she could during treatment:
I managed to get some runs in before chemotherapy started but then found I didn’t have the energy. I walked every day, and my husband set me up with an indoor bike. I also tried to do classes online with Apple Fit. When chemo finished and before radiotherapy started, I did my first run. 1.8km was all I managed but it felt great!
Remission and returning to running
In July 2021, Clare was told that her cancer was in remission. Whilst Covid-19 restrictions were being eased, they were not completely lifted until February 2022. Unsurprisingly it took Clare a long time to feel comfortable being amongst groups of people, particularly indoors.
Even when we were allegedly out of Covid, I wouldn’t have come to the gym, I wouldn’t have gone to a restaurant. If I did, I would sit outside. Everything I did would be outside. And then those first few times where I started going in, I’d be worried I was going to get ill.
Clare and Brendan moved from Northamptonshire to Grantham in 2023. For Clare resuming running was part of getting her life back on track. She began running on her own. She wanted to go to parkrun but did not feel confident enough to run with others.
Fighting Fit 5K
Everything changed on Friday 5th April 2024, when Clare read about the Fighting Fit 5K (FF5K) in the Grantham Journal. It was being launched at Belton House parkrun near Grantham the following day.
FF5K is a joint initiative of Lincoln City Foundation Fighting Fit programme, Lincolnshire healthcare professionals, parkrun UK, and Belton House, National Trust. It aims to encourage people affected by cancer to run, walk, jog, volunteer or cheer at parkrun and to bring them together for mutual support.
The newspaper article was the spark for Clare to gain the confidence to turn up at Belton House the next day.
I decided that it was now or never and got myself to Belton. I was incredibly nervous, seeing all the runners and just the huge number of people. I walked past the Lincolnshire group, (a few times!) but finally went over and said hello. They were all so welcoming and I immediately felt at ease.
I was inspired to run because I met a lady that morning that had had sarcoma, and she’d had about 16 nodes taken out of her neck. When she flew off at the start, I thought, “Right, I’m going to keep up with you!”. I didn’t keep up with her, but she was my inspiration.
Clare found it reassuring to be able to meet other people with cancer, something she had not been able to do during her treatment.
After the run we sat and had a coffee, and it was so lovely to hear everyone’s experiences of living with cancer and their new normal.
Team Ford Fundraising
The whole family was affected by Clare’s cancer. They wanted to help other people affected by lymphoma. Fundraising for Lymphoma Action began when Michael ran the London Marathon for the charity in 2023. Brendan did the same in 2024. Then Michael decided to take on an exceptional ultra challenge, raising funds for Lymphoma Action and The Hike With Mike Foundation. In May 2024, Michael ran John O’Groats to Land’s End via the Three Peaks, setting a Fastest Known Time for the route. This involved running over 50 miles a day for 19 days and summiting Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon (Yr Wydffa).
In September 2024, Clare ran her first race since her cancer diagnosis, the Robin Hood Half Marathon in Nottingham.
Michael’s achievements inspired Clare to take on the big challenge of training for the London Marathon herself.
Michael has been my biggest inspiration. His achievements in 2023 London Marathon and then John O’Groats to Land’s End via the Three Peaks 2024 were outstanding. The effort and discipline he put into his training were incredible to be a part of. He never doubted himself or, if he did, he never showed it.
Clare’s preparations for the London Marathon
Joining Grantham Running Club has helped Clare with her training. Regular club runs once or twice a week motivate her to run in the evenings. And she’s made new friends and got lots of tips from more experienced runners. Her other runs are usually on her own on the roads.
Since 2023, Clare’s been a member of Fitness Collective, a gym in West Bridgford, Nottingham, where Michael is employed as a coach. It is her first experience of consistent strength training.
The gym’s helped massively. I don’t have aching hips like I used to. I can get up the next day and even after running 18 miles the next day I did 10k so, I actually think my legs are stronger. I’m stronger in mind and body than I probably was.
Whilst Clare is feeling nervous about the marathon, she feels better prepared than she was in 2014. She’s been preparing mentally on her long runs.
When you’re running and you’re starting to feel tired, ask yourself, “What’s hurting?”, and then try and focus on something else.
She knows that however bad she feels on the day nothing can be as bad as her gruelling first day of chemotherapy which took about eight hours. She thinks the crowds at London will help to carry her along.
And Clare has plans for after London. She wants to do some half marathons in Europe.
I’m really excited, because that’s another thing that I need to tick off, which I haven’t done since cancer and Covid. I haven’t been on a plane. I haven’t gone overseas. So that is something I’d really love to do.
The London Marathon on 27th April 2025 will be a family affair. Lymphoma Action recently offered Michael and Brendan places. Together with Clare they hope to increase their fundraising total for the charity which stood at £11,500 at the beginning of 2025.
Good luck Clare!
Sources and Links
Interviews with Clare Ford, January and February 2025
Launch of Fighting Fit 5k at Belton House parkrun news, 6th April 2024
Photographs from Belton House parkrun courtesy of Richard Hall FRPS, other photo – Clare Ford.
Lymphoma Action – Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma https://lymphoma-action.org.uk/types-lymphoma/non-hodgkin-lymphoma
Michael’s John O’Groats to Land’s End + Three Peaks Fastest Known Time record
Clare’s Justgiving fundraising page
Other Stories
Chris Stanley – keeping active in her sixties despite Parkinson’s – 2025
Anne Dockery – masters athlete in her seventies with bronchiectasis – 2022
Maddy Collinge – running with osteoporosis – 2018
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