“I have never run a marathon before,” said 32-year-old Zoe Driver, hailing from Wylye, near Salisbury, England. Yet, despite not having any experience, Zoe Driver will run one of the most popular races in the world, TCS London. As part of the coveted Abbott World Marathon Majors, running the 26.2-mile (42.2 km) course will be no easy task, but Ms. Driver is ready to go all out.
Yet, you may wonder: Why would a rookie runner graduate straight to the real deal in her attempt? Would it be better to start with a half-marathon? That would make sense, but Zoe Driver isn’t doing this to check a fitness goal off her bucket list. The winemaker’s motivation to run the race comes from a tragedy that nearly took her father’s life.
61-year-old Richard Driver, Zoe’s father, loves tennis. So when the UK native faced back pain that just wouldn’t go away, he chalked it up to an injury. “Fast forward a couple of months, and it turned out he actually had a tumor the size of a rugby ball,” the London marathon participant wrote while describing how the cancer diagnosis hit the family like a freight train.
Richard Driver had sarcoma. It was only after the tumor damaged his organs did he finally feel the pain. Now that Richard is finally cancer-free Zoe Drive wants to do her part. “It’s my way of raising a bit of awareness of sarcoma. I’d never heard of sarcoma before Dad was ill. Watching this usually strong unfazed man battle this awful cancer makes me desperately want to do something,” she said as per Salisbury Radio.
And why wouldn’t she? After all, her father’s fight with sarcoma was brutal. During Richard Driver’s surgery in May last year, doctors removed his spleen, pancreas, left kidney, part of his bowel, and some back muscles while removing the malignant tumor. Unfortunately, further complications in his pancreas and gall bladder (what was left of them) landed the retired IT professional in the ICU once again. The ordeal compelled Zoe Driver to do more, and the London marathon gave her the perfect platform.
Running a marathon to make a difference
Raising awareness for sarcoma is only one part of the 32-year-old’s goal. Zoe Driver is also running to raise funds for Sarcoma UK. The World Series allows several charitable organizations to team up with runners to raise funds for a plethora of causes, and Sarcoma is among them. So Zoe teamed up with Sarcoma UK to raise “funds for this charity that is so close to our family.”
Generally, each charity provides everything a runner may need in the race and sets a fundraising goal. Zoe Driver’s case is no different. Zoe’s athlete page on the marathon’s official website shows her fundraising target as £3,750 ($4910). And guess what? The first-time marathon runner has already reached 95% of that target with over 20 days left to spare.
The winemaker is among the 32199 fundraisers who’ll run through the streets of London on April 27. The collective efforts of runners with similar stories of overcoming adversity have raised an astonishing £19.79M so far. Today, Zoe Driver is thankful that her father beat cancer, but now she wants to help others who are suffering from this terrible disease.
“While we don’t know what the future holds, for now we are all so happy and grateful to everyone who helped my dad and us as a family through a very difficult year,” Zoe Driver added. So on April 27, the rookie runner will race with gratitude in her heart.
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