Doing it ‘her way’ - Delaney Dawson’s story of recovery and running
The 5k Your Way ambassador has used the sport as part of her cancer recovery - now she’s giving back
Delaney Dawson has always loved running.
From competing in cross-country events at school to travelling the world with friends to run marathons, the sport has been central to her life.
What she hadn’t expected was for it to become central to two huge recovery journeys, firstly from a back injury that threatened to prevent her running again and then from breast cancer.
Those setbacks came within an intense two year period, with the coronavirus pandemic sandwiched in the middle.
It was time when Delaney leant into running for her mental health and basic fitness, refusing to give up on the sport even when her body cried out for her to do so.
She has emerged from it with renewed vigour, celebrating her recovery by taking on the SuperHalfs series, a group of six half marathons that features Lisbon, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Valencia.
And Delaney has also embraced the chance to help others with cancer or who are in remission by becoming an ambassador at 5k Your Way, an initiative promoted by the Move Against Cancer charity in the UK.
The group meets on the last Saturday of the month at more than 100 designated parkruns across the UK and Ireland.
It aims to provide a space for cancer patients to meet, talk and - if they want - do some exercise.
Delaney told Running Tales: “Going to parkrun really suited me because it aligned with my own experiences and my own attitude of, ‘I'm not going to think myself into feeling ill. I'm going to do what I can when I can’.
“And that's what 5k Your Way is about. Every month we have people there, some who walk the whole thing, some who walk part of it, some who run, some who volunteer.
“We really do have people doing a bit of everything. Whatever you're doing within the group, you get a really big cheer and loads of support from the parkrun team as well.”
London calling - Delaney’s marathon goal:
Delaney’s running story started in primary school with cross-country events. Once in secondary school, she dived into sports days by entering as many longer distance events as possible.
“Nobody wanted to do the longer distances,” she said, “but I just loved it.
“Every year, every opportunity I got, I was out there running. I just seemed to find my own rhythm and to really enjoy being in my own head.”
Delaney’s natural attraction to running was augmented by watching her uncle run the London Marathon four times in the early-1990s.
“I was probably about nine or ten the first time,” she said.
“And I just loved everything about the London Marathon experience, and the marathon weekend and family travelling down from Yorkshire.
“It was an amazing experience as a child of that age to go and spectate at the London Marathon.”
Part of the inspiration supplied by Delaney’s uncle came from the fact he completed all those marathons despite having asthma. Such determination is a trait that has been passed on to his niece.
At the time, Delaney had been bitten by the marathon bug: “He never let it stop him and ran something like 10 marathons in all.
“He doesn't run anymore. He's into his 80s but he's still active, but that was always a really big inspiration for me.
“Standing there seeing all these amazing athletes running by, I just said I want to do that and I want to do it as soon as I'm old enough.
“That was always my goal as a child - to get into the London Marathon.”
It was a challenge she first achieved aged just 19, but despite all her experience watching the event Delaney managed to demonstrate “exactly how not to do a marathon”.
She ran the race with her dad alongside her, which she called a “great experience” but as a teenager was overconfident and didn’t do enough training.
“We had a really good first half, but then the wheels came off,” Delaney said.
“We were reduced to walking from about halfway, which made for a very long second half of the marathon.”
Her dad, who had promised Delaney’s mum he would stay with her the whole way round, stuck by her side despite otherwise being on for a good time.
But young Delaney was not so generous in return: “I remember coming round the corner on The Mall and seeing the finish line.
“That’s when I broke into a sprint and my poor dad was left trying to keep up with me.”
Despite her initial struggle, Delaney was not deterred and went on to complete a total of seven marathons, including several abroad.
She quickly gained a close network of running friends, who would train together and then head off on a holiday with a marathon thrown in for good measure.
Among the events she completed were the Paris, Barcelona and Chicago Marathons. A second tilt at London and the Brighton Marathon, twice, completed the set.
“I've also been to support people in various other cities around the world,” she said.
“To go and do a big race somewhere is a brilliant way to see a city.
“When you go on long runs, you do make good friends because you spend a lot of time with them, and you help each other through it.
“Those people will always be good friends to me.”
‘Your days of running long distances are over’:
Delaney was in the process of training for her first ultra marathon event, Endure 24, when she picked up an injury that threatened to prevent her running ever again.
Struggling with pain in first one and then her other foot, she was originally diagnosed as having suffered a stress fracture.
That theory switched to tendon damage, before an MRI scan showed she hadn’t actually suffered any mechanical damage to her feet at all.
A further MRI uncovered she had damaged one of the discs in her back. It had been pushing on a nerve and causing pain in her feet.
She said: “The physio who I'd seen over the years for various different running injuries, who'd always been really good at getting me back running and understanding the importance of running to somebody whose lifestyle is based around that, actually said to me, ‘I think your days of running long distances are over now’.
“He said if I worked at it, I might be able to get back to doing the occasional 5k, but just on soft ground.”
From that final diagnosis in October 2019, it took until September 2021 for Delaney to return to running races, successfully completing a 10km trail event.
“It was incredible,” she said, “because for a long time I didn't think I'd be able to do anything like that.
“I'd gone through all the grief of thinking I wouldn't be able to run again or run as much. And running has always been my thing, my go to thing to clear my head.
“It's how I would handle tough situations. Generally, I would go out for a run to process things and get my head clear.”
Throughout her recovery, Delaney had stayed in contact with her friends in the running community and had continued to volunteer at events.
But, she said, nothing had compared to actually running: “I was smiling all the way around that 10k trail race. It was really hilly, but I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
“And I was so pleased, obviously, to be able to finish that, and come away with the medal and feel like I could run more.
“I felt fine from all the rehab that I'd done on my back. I actually felt like I could do more.”
The ‘devastating shock’ of cancer:
Delaney’s post-race optimism was, however, to be all too short-lived. Just two weeks after she completed that 10k, she was told she had breast cancer.
The diagnosis came as a complete shock, with Delaney feeling fitter than she had in for a long time after her return from running.
She had gone for testing after finding a lump while showering, but wasn’t even feeling ill at the time.
“It was a complete shock, absolutely devastating,” she said. “The not knowing, at first, how bad it was or what the treatment plan would be, was horrible.
“There was about a month of different tests and conversations with different doctors and the multi-disciplinary team that was looking at it, and more scans and just all sorts of things.
“At one point, there was a concern that it may have already spread. So, there was obviously a lot of stress. It was a very emotional time.
“It's very hard having those conversations with your loved ones and not knowing what's going to happen to you, what the treatment's going to be like, or if you're going to still be able to do the things you enjoy and rely upon, like work.
“It was a big unknown and came with massive amounts of stress and anxiety.”
Delaney was determined to keep running, as much for her mental health as anything else, not even telling all of the people she went out with what was happening behind the scenes.
“People had no idea and it felt a bit strange to be running, thinking how can I have such a serious illness when I actually I can go out and run and feel okay,” she said.
“It was very surreal. When I found out my treatment plan, my question to the doctors at all the different stages was ‘when can I run again?’”
That treatment plan saw Delaney undergo surgery followed by chemotherapy - when she managed a few gentle runs and to walk every day.
She told Running Tales that the amount of activity she did came down to how she felt each morning, from a simple walk round the block to a five mile run.
Eventually, though, as the result of an elevated heart rate, she was told to stop doing any intensive exercise. That time proved to be “really hard” as Delaney battled to hold the pressure that running had been easing at bay, but fortunately it wasn’t long before her doctors said she could run again.
“Once again, I was starting from scratch,” she said, “but the privilege of being able to run when you've been through all of that, it's just incredible.
“It was always there in my mind that running is part of my identity. It's what I do. I wanted to get back running as quickly as I could.”
Learning how to run 5k Her Way:
Delaney was spurred on by the thought of simply being able to run rather than aiming for “a crazy ultra marathon or anything”.
Part of that came from being part of the parkrun community, originally as a run director at Nonsuch parkrun and then as an ambassador for 5k Your Way.
She had seen the area’s 5k Your Way group start up in July 2021, just a few months before she got her own diagnosis.
When she found out she had cancer herself, she quickly become an ambassador, jumping at the chance to do something positive and to volunteer in a role which was “a nice distraction without being too much of a burden”.
“It's all about just coming and taking part and doing what suits you at the time,” Delaney said. “There's no commitment to it. It's completely free.
“The ambassadors and the other people there all understand cancer. We all understand that although everybody has a unique experience on their cancer journey, there’s a lot of shared experiences as well, a lot of things that people can relate to.
“We encourage people to come out and take part, and they're just really friendly groups.
“You might think a cancer support group sounds quite depressing, but this is really uplifting because it's people coming out and doing what they can despite their experiences of cancer.
“It's a brilliant way of making friends in the cancer community who understand a bit more what you're going through.”
Delaney said she has been amazed by the strength and courage of the people who are part of the 5k Your Way community.
“There are just so many inspiring stories, and I really mean that because what you find - when talking about people on a cancer journey - is quite often we are spoken of as being brave or inspiring just for going through cancer treatment.
“And it can be quite a lot of pressure to try and be like that. But, actually, I've met some people who are genuinely inspiring for what they have gone on to do.
“It could be somebody who ran the London Marathon while going through chemo, or somebody who was never a runner before and, while living with cancer, came and started walking and then came back week after week, started running and improving their times.
“There are all sorts of stories and experiences and it's quite uplifting.”
Creating a buzz and doing what suits you:
5k Your Way was the brainchild of oncologist and former professional triathlete, Dr Lucy Gossage.
Seven years ago, she had a lightbulb moment while working with teenage and adult patients going through chemotherapy.
She saw they had few chances to boost or maintain their fitness while having treatment, and decided to do something to change that.
5k Your Way was eventually born to solve that problem, with parkrun deemed its natural home.
One reason for this was the events inherent non-competitive and inclusive ethos.
Delaney said there is none of the pressure a race would bring, with many of those with cancer or in remission taking on a kilometre or two rather than the whole distance.
“That works particularly well for those who are going through treatment or have had treatment where it can cause side effects that are sometimes unpredictable,” Delaney said.
“With treatment, there are some days where you feel okay and can go out and do things, then on other days you don't feel up to it.
“So, it's really suited in the respect that there is no commitment. You come and you turn up when it suits you and you do what works for you.”
The relaxed nature of the run or walk also encourages conversation, both as a chance to speak to people who have gone through similar experiences with cancer and also in terms of a chance to have ‘normal’ everyday chats.
“We talk about holidays and TV programmes and nice food,” she said. “It's just that we've got that shared understanding of where those things might be affected by cancer treatment.”
Various 5k Your Way groups from round the country also meet up for larger events such as World Cancer Day, which saw many of them take on parkrun’s home course at Bushy Park.
“There's a real buzz about it,” she said. “Without 5k Your Way, we wouldn't have all come together. We wouldn't have had those experiences.”
Running in the midnight sun… and wind and rain:
Delaney’s cancer recovery, hot on the heels of her serious back injury and with the Covid pandemic in the middle of them, left her feeling “so battered that I didn't really think about what I'd gone through”.
Instead, she simply took everything day by day, dealing with the added complication of ongoing treatment to reduce the risk of recurrence that came with its own side effects.
“I’ve never had this big moment where I thought, ‘right, that's done now I can move on’,” she said.
“I’ve just gradually got used to things. And I've learned more about how to live with those side effects, what I can do to help myself.”
If there was a significant landmark in Delaney’s running recovery it came in Reykjavik, where she completed the Midnight Sun Half Marathon in what was her first big race after being given the all-clear.
“It was huge,” she said. “It was something I'd put out there without really knowing if I could do it.
“It actually turned out to be more like the Midnight Rain and Wind Half Marathon. It was atrocious conditions.
“I had one of those bad days with my treatment and every step was hard, but I did it.
“I even managed to pick up the pace for the last couple of miles. I was really pleased with how I ran it and just to get to the finish line of something like that was amazing.”
Since taking on that race, Delaney has found a new goal in the form of the SuperHalfs series.
She said she found the challenge “almost by accident”.
It all started when she got the chance to take up a last minute place at the Cardiff Half. Delaney hadn’t originally intended to run, and certainly had no idea the race was part of a series, but she grabbed the spot.
It was then that she realised Cardiff was part of a set of races that would allow her to enjoy her twin loves of running and travel.
Cardiff has been followed by Prague, Valencia, Lisbon and Berlin, leaving just Copenhagen - with a place booked for September- to complete the set.
“The series has taken me to places that I hadn’t had on my list and they've all been, so far, really, really good races, and really interesting cities.
“I’ve just enjoyed the whole experience so far.”
And, ultimately, that is what running means to Delaney: enjoyment.
Whether that comes while travelling the world taking on marathons and half-marathons, volunteering at parkrun and 5k Your Way, or in her role as coach of an all-women’s group, running has always been central to her life.
It has helped her overcome hardship and illness, and allowed her to give back to the sport and community that helped her.
“Running is a part of me,” she said. “The running community has been massively supportive.
“There are so many friends I've gained through running and volunteering in the running community.
“I'm so grateful to be able to keep running and keep pushing myself on.
“I've never lost that joy for running. In fact, I appreciate it even more.”
Further reading:
Guest blog: How the 5k Your Way revolution is 'kindly, quietly, powerfully' getting cancer patients moving
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