She broke the world record for a marathon 20 years ago, two decades after her father ran his first.

And now Paula Radcliffe’s daughter, who was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, is going to be running her first.

The former world record holder and winner of seven major marathons retired ten years ago.

Now 51, Radcliffe is back running marathons and has been chronicling the build-up to the event with a podcast series, Paula’s Marathon Run Club, offering advice to runners at all levels which is sponsored by Children with Cancer UK, the charity her daughter Isla is raising money and awareness for.

Having now recovered, Radcliffe’s 18-year-old daughter Isla was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at the age of 13.

Speaking to this week’s Radio Times, Radcliffe said she realised there was a problem with her daughter when she started to get chronic stomach aches and was bleeding.

Paula Radcliffe’s daughter Isla, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer five years ago, is going to be running her first marathon (pictured together with her son Raphael)

Having now recovered, Radcliffe’s 18-year-old daughter Isla was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at the age of 13 (pictured in 2023)

The former world record holder and winner of seven major marathons retired ten years ago (pictured with baby Isla in 2008)

‘That’s when we knew something wasn’t right, and we went to the paediatrician,’ she said.

‘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.

‘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..’

Radcliffe, who crossed the Tokyo marathon off her list last month and now lining up in Boston on Monday to complete the set, said she asked her gynaecologist if she could freeze her own eggs in case Isla was left infertile.

‘He just looked at me and said, “Look, she isn’t going to want your 47-year-old eggs”,’ she said.

‘When she lost her hair, I said I would cut my hair off and get it made into a wig for her. She flat out refused that.

‘We’d not told many people at the time, and she didn’t want people asking why I’d done it. There are things you’re not ready for – either going through it or as a parent.’

‘She doesn’t know how it has affected her chances of becoming a parent.

Having now recovered, Radcliffe’s 18-year-old daughter Isla was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at the age of 13 (pictured in April 2025)

Paula after winning the women’s marathon at the World Championships in Athletics at Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland in 2005

Read More Edith Bowman, 51, discusses being targeted by trolls and says it’s ‘very hard’ for celebrities to ‘come back’ after ‘messing up’ on social media

‘She now has a tendency under stress to get allergic reactions on her skin, and we don’t know whether that’s linked to the treatment.’

Radcliffe said that it has changed their family in many ways, and in some for the best.

She shares daughter Isla and her 14-year-old son Raphael, with husband and fellow runner Gary Lough, 54.

Raphael, she says, is becoming a promising junior runner.

‘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,’ she said.

‘He’s (Raphael) extremely empathetic, probably in a way that most 14-year-old boys are not, right now.

‘I hope he doesn’t lose that because it’s really special. He’d even let Isla sit and curl his hair when she had no hair to curl, the only proviso being that he would brush it before he went out anywhere.

‘He spent a lot of time with her and worrying about her, and they have a closer bond because of that.’

Read the full interview in this week’s Radio Times or online at radiotimes.com

Radcliffe expects Boston, on April 21, to be her final marathon, which will mean that she has run in all six majors, the others being London, Berlin, New York, Chicago and Tokyo, which she ran in March in a time of two hours, 57 minutes and 26 seconds.

Although she won’t be running London this coming weekend, she will be commentating for the BBC.

‘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,’ she said.

‘But when it’s your little girl doing it, that’s going to be a bit more emotional.’