Paula Radcliffe has admitted she is living in constant fear about her daughter's health, six years after Isla was diagnosed with cancer. The 19-year-old needed chemotherapy after a rare form of ovarian cancer was spotted by doctors in 2020.
After a large malignant tumour was found, Isla also had to have her right ovary and part of her fallopian tube removed. She was given the all-clear in 2021, but two years later, a test recorded a shadow in her abdomen. Although doctors found no evidence of the cancer returning, Radcliffe was left shaken by the ordeal and has admitted feeling helpless and constantly on edge.
Shadow on remaining ovary
Reflecting on the cancer scare, Radcliffe said: "After one of Isla's routine MRI scans, I was called for a follow-up appointment at a different hospital. They told me they had seen a shadow on her remaining ovary."
"I was trying not to panic, to stay calm for her, while at the same time thinking, 'What could this be?' But your mind goes off imagining what could happen. A few days later, the doctors took her in for keyhole surgery, which didn't find anything."
"Then she had a three-hour op in which they opened her up. They couldn't see anything then either, so in the end, they concluded it was just a shadow or benign abnormality."
"But how do you explain to a 15-year-old that she's just gone through three hours of surgery to be left none the wiser?"
Helplessness and guilt
Radcliffe added that she was "living in constant fear" and said she felt guilty when Isla was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer, wondering if she was somehow responsible. The former runner explained: "If I had spotted it sooner, would they have been able to save her ovary? You start thinking, 'Is this something I did when I was pregnant?'"
"I was lucky that the doctors were very, very good from the beginning. They explained it was a germ cell type that was just there from conception, this is nothing to do with anything you have done, but what we have been through has made me more paranoid."
Early symptoms
Radcliffe also detailed the symptoms Isla had been experiencing before her diagnosis, saying: "The first sign was how much Isla was sleeping. She was struggling to get up."
"She started her periods in March, and they were very painful. At times I had friends she was with calling me saying she was curled up on the bathroom floor in pain."
"There were mood swings, too. She just started being volatile, to the point that I thought maybe she was struggling with the loss of my dad, who died in April 2020, so I booked her in to see a psychologist."
"I was trying to do the right things, but my mind never went to something more serious. Isla had won the regional cross-country championships in February, when the tumour potentially was already growing."
"But then the biggest sign we needed to get help was that she was passing black blood every couple of weeks. And then she felt the mass."
"When we had the first scans, they told us what they had found was massive. They told me to come in the next day separately, and I knew."
"It was a huge shock, but the doctor was phenomenal. She explained the tumour was perfectly survivable. Then Isla came in and she could see how upset I was, but when she was told, I think she was actually relieved to know what was wrong."
