A woman from Pontyclun will be running her first half marathon after battling sarcoidosis – a rare condition that caused small patches of swollen tissue to develop in her organs.
Claire Rennie, 49, has joined the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon 100 Club and will be taking on the race on Sunday 6 October to prove to herself just what she’s capable of.
Claire, who works as a contracts manager, first noticed something wasn’t quite right two years ago when her face started swelling up.
She said: “I was working at an airshow at the time but when I got back home, I noticed that my face was swelling. It swelled to the size of a football and I was going back and forth to the doctors for lots of tests but they didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
It was getting more painful and over time the swelling was travelling to other parts of her body. Eventually a scan revealed that her lymph nodes were enlarged, and she needed to have a biopsy.
“It was extremely frightening,” said Claire. “When you hear news like this and that you need a biopsy you assume the worst. I was experiencing a loss of sensation, the lymph nodes in my my lungs were pressing into my chest and sarcoidosis was affecting other organs manifesting in my body – even my eyes became inflamed.”
The results showed that Claire had a rare condition known as sarcoidosis. This meant her lymph nodes were becoming enlarged in many parts of her body and was causing small patches of swollen tissue, called granulomas, to develop in some of her organs
Claire said: “They don’t know what causes it, but it can be down to anything from air quality or coming into contact with certain viruses. It makes the immune system goes crazy. I’d never heard of it before but it affects you quite a lot – I was extremely ill with it.”
Claire was on steroids for a year to try and get the condition under control. However, this left her feeling very lethargic.
She said: “It made me realise I need to take my health seriously and can’t get away with not exercising or not taking care of myself.
“I’d not exercised much in the past as I’d gone through a lot of abdominal surgeries in my early 20s so was worried about the impact this might have, but I knew I wanted to make some lifestyle changes.”
As she began to feel better, in February this year, after encouragement from her daughter Holly, a GB Judo athlete, Claire decided to join a gym and said her health has massively improved.
“I now do spin twice a week as well as kettlebells and other classes. I started running on the treadmill too and that’s when I thought about trying to take on something like the Cardiff Half.
“Holly did the race last year to raise money for sarcoidosis and I wanted to see what I could achieve if I put my mind to it and persevered.”
Claire has joined the Principality Cardiff Half 100 Club, an initiative from event organisers, Run 4 Wales, whereby they gift 100 free spaces into the race to act as a vehicle to help them improve their health and wellbeing.
Claire said: “It’s made me realise I can do a lot more than I thought I could. I’ve got a training plan and I’m focused on achieving it and have seen my health and fitness improve so much. When you’re ill you realise your health can be taken away from you at any moment, so you have to fight for it and do all you can to better equip yourself. This has all been so life changing and I just wish I’d started sooner – it’s like a whole new world has been opened up to me.”
Matt Newman, Chief Executive at Run 4 Wales, added: “We’ve been putting on the 100 Club at the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon since 2015 which has encouraged so many more people to take up running who otherwise may not have participated.
“While Claire has gone through an incredibly tough time, it’s fantastic that she’s now able to take the steps to improve her health and is feeling better than ever. We’re looking forward to welcoming her to the Welsh capital on Sunday 6 October and helping her achieve her half marathon goal.”
The Principality Cardiff Half Marathon takes place on Sunday 6 October.
