“It’s like I walked into that room as one person and came out completely different,” says Adele Roberts. “When you hear those words, ‘you’ve got cancer’, nothing can prepare you for that.”
This year she will be running her third London Marathon – but when Roberts reaches the start line on Sunday, it will be the first time since her bowel cancer diagnosis.
Not content with simply completing the 26.2 miles less than a year after being given the all-clear, the Radio 1 presenter and DJ has a world record in her sights.
Roberts, 44, has lived with a stoma for the past 18 months following surgery and will attempt to complete the distance in under four hours and become the fastest female with an ileostomy.
“I hope I can be an inspiration to people that are living with cancer and going through it,” she says.
“I hope I can be an inspiration to people with stomas. I think getting on that start line will be a massive achievement for me – finishing the marathon will be even better.
“But if I get that world record, that will be the greatest thing ever.”
Roberts felt “in the shape of her life” when symptoms, including bloating, first developed and initially delayed seeking medical advice due to the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic on the NHS.
Following a potentially life-saving conversation with her father, she was eventually tested and underwent treatment for stage two bowel cancer a few weeks later in October 2021.
“I wasn’t ready for it,” Roberts says of her diagnosis. “I remember thinking in that moment, ‘am I going to die?’ That was the first thought in my mind.
“That’s why I want to talk about cancer as much as I can. I want to let people know that if you’re diagnosed early, like I was lucky enough to be, you can get through it.”
