Woman who ‘could not run for 30 seconds’ completes half-Ironman

The odds on 23-year-old Meg Stevenson completing a half-Ironman less than two years after starting the NHS running programme Couch to 5k were stacked against her.

When she was aged eight, she had a kidney removed and intensive chemotherapy "reducing her lung capacity by 70%", due to a kidney cancer diagnosis.

At 19, her mother Lucy died from cancer, leaving her in charge of the family home and caring for her younger brother Will.

She added: "It was tricky, especially when I look back. I think it was harder than I let myself realise. Starting that and learning on my own effectively… was very tricky."

She added: "My priority was to get Will through school, to keep the house running and to keep the dogs somewhat well-behaved.

"[All of that] as well as the obvious, that I had lost my mum was hard. We were best friends."

In November 2024, she said she could not run for 30 seconds and realised she "floated around a lot and was numb”.

The 23-year-old, from Albrighton, Shropshire, then distracted herself with a new job, boyfriend and friendship group.

"I did not notice how lonely I was because [my then-boyfriend] replaced the alone time [so] there was no alone time.

"I hit a point where I started to think that I was not doing anything for myself, that I was really unfit. Some of my friends were saying that they were going to start running in the new year as a new year's resolution.

"I thought, 'why wait?'. If I want to do it, I am going to start now."

The then-21 year old kept her training to herself until her friends started the hobby in the new year.

She then progressed to booking races, such as the Wolverhampton 10k, Shifnal 10k, and Shrewsbury Half Marathon, as well as triathlons across the Midlands and Wales.

Her friend signed up for the Swansea Ironman 70.3, a race where she later did not finish (DNF).

"We had spoken about, ‘wouldn't it be so cool to do an ironman at some point in our lives’?

"I was not expecting that to be now. He just said, 'Swansea is open and I've booked it‘.

"I was like, 'all right, well, I suppose we're going to join you then', on a whim."

After crashing out of the triathlon, Stevenson did not want her nine months of training to go to waste, so signed up for a race that was two months later, the Belgrade 70.3.

She went to the Serbian capital with her brother Will and did not tell anyone she was taking part.

"My headspace was a lot better because I knew that I could do 90k in the time limit with a low elevation course," she added.

"I was actually really excited about it. I thought this will hopefully feel like a victory lap to make the last year of training feel worth it."

Taking part in these races came with their own set of challenges she had been left with from her chemotherapy.

"The doctor said there's no reason I cannot run a marathon. So I thought, well, there is no reason I can't do a half-Ironman, you know, similar enough," Stevenson added.

"But I am in the clear post-treatment, so I thought, 'well, I think it's just my fitness. I think that's just something that I can try and work on.

"I have said to people in the past, in this stage of my life, I could be doing so much worse, so actually the worst thing I'm doing is spending £400 on a race entrance fee.”

Stevenson said she planned to run the Malaga Marathon in November 2026 and will attempt the Swansea Ironman 70.3 again next year.

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