Trisha Goddard has said running whilst undergoing cancer treatment helped her recovery both mentally and physically.
The talk show host and TV presenter, 63, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and operations for a year.
Goddard also revealed she found her hot flushes during the menopause “great” as it allowed her to run in extremely low temperatures.
She told Runner’s World UK: “Running helped my recovery from breast cancer.
“I ran all the way through my treatment and it was bloody hard, but it kept my head together, and because the doctors were constantly checking on me they could see the physical benefits.
“Chemotherapy and cancer drugs leach the calcium from you, so your bone density is checked before and after treatment. Mine was optimum at the start and a year later I’d only lost half a per cent.”
The broadcaster also explained how she thought the hot flushes caused by the menopause were “great” as they allowed her to run through severe weather conditions and -11°C temperatures while living in Boston.
She added: “I’ll run in snow, sleet, rain. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was terrified.
“I went for a run and it was sleeting, and I remember holding my head up, letting it sting my face, thinking, ‘I may never feel this again.’ I’d never felt so alive.”
Goddard reflected on how her default was to run every day after her cancer diagnosis and said she would even park her car 20 minutes from the hospital to run the rest of the journey.
“When I ran there for my first session, the radiotherapy technician said, ‘You won’t be doing that any more. Most people can barely walk through the door. Don’t get any ideas about running every day, just rest’”, she recalled.
“I was so angry with him that I made sure I did run every day.
“Now I remember him with fondness because I need people like that. I only need to be told I can’t and then I do.”
The broadcaster is best known for her morning talk show Trisha which ran from 1998 to 2010, as well as hosting a US version, named The Trisha Goddard Show, from 2012 until it was cancelled in 2014.
Goddard currently presents her own show on Saturday afternoons on talkRadio which focuses on current affairs and social issues.
In 2020, she also took part in the twelfth series of Dancing on Ice and was paired with Lukasz Rozycki.
Read the full Trisha Goddard interview in the January issue of Runner’s World UK.