Yahoo Finance ‘I went from running parkruns to learning to walk again’
In 2016, runner Chris Currie was fit and active, though he was increasingly lethargic after exercise. A cancer diagnosis came as a shock, but he assumed he could quickly get back to normal life after surgery. However, an emergency second procedure resulted in a major stroke that left him paralysed on one side of his body. He had to use a wheelchair while learning how to walk again. After much progress, he has his sights set on 10K.
Runner’s World: How often did you run before you went into hospital?
Chris Currie: I was very fit and active, I was playing most sports, but running 5K quite regularly. I’d participate in the parkruns at Crystal Palace on a Saturday. I really enjoyed running with other people as well.
Had you noticed symptoms or did the diagnosis come out of the blue?
I was feeling quite weak, quite anaemic at times, even when I was running. But I thought, 'It’s fine, you’re just a bit tired, carry on.' And I did, I used to just do the runs and feel OK, but something was masking what was really going on.
That’s when things started to not feel right. I was on holiday – I remember swimming in the sea and feeling lethargic coming out, going for a jog and feeling quite tired. After I got home, I had a blood test. That's when they found the tumour in my bowel.
Luckily for me, the cancer didn’t spread – I had an operation [on October 19, 2016] and the cancer was removed. I’m clear at the moment.
Did the surgery feel OK at the time?
When I had the first operation I felt OK. But as time went on in the ward, people were doing their exercises and I was thinking, ‘I’m not doing anything.’ I had a leak in my bowel from a disconnect in the first operation. I was getting weaker and losing weight all the time – I was 15 stone when I had the first operation and my weight dropped to 12 stone.
On October 27, I had to go in for an emergency operation because I was passing blood rather than faeces.
What happened next?
It was a long operation. They thought it was going to be a couple of hours, but it ended up being six. I was in the ICU overnight and then blue lighted to King’s College Hospital, because they thought I had a bleed on my brain – luckily I didn’t.
I remember speaking to the nurse in the ambulance. I asked, ‘Can we go to McDonald’s?’ She said, ‘We can’t Chris, you’ve just had a stroke.’
I was in King’s for seven weeks. I was in the Intensive Care Unit for about a week, I was getting hoisted out of the bed, there were wires all around me and I was being fed through a tube. I was then moved to the High Dependency Unit, which was the next step for me to be able to move out of intensive care, to slowly build up to being discharged. But I was still a long way off.
4 years ago, I set off outside on my first ever walk, with a small goal of just feeling the tarmac again on my soles. From being hoisted to and from my hospital bed just a month before. #believe pic.twitter.com/HTVkUr7Lfy
— Chris Currie (@ChrisCurr1e) February 18, 2021
How long were you in hospital?
Three months. I had to have a great deal of therapy, trying to get out of the wheelchair and just walk across the corridor.
By the time you left hospital, what was your condition like?
When I moved to the rehab centre, I was learning to walk with a quad stick, but most of the time I was in the wheelchair. Eventually, I moved from there because I thought, ‘I need to get home.'
When I came home I was still in a wheelchair. Physios were coming to my house, getting me to do exercises on the floor, getting me to stand by the wheelchair and do pivot turns – which was quite difficult. It wasn’t just the physical impact on me, it was the mental impact, too.
It sounds like you were focused on thinking, ‘Right what do I have to do next to get to where I want to be?’
Exactly. My instinct was to think, ‘What are the small steps I need to take to be able to walk?’ There was a point in February where I got out of the wheelchair and took those small steps. The feeling of the tarmac was nice but I still had a long way to go. It took six months to get to using my own legs to walk, rather than being aided.
What’s your condition like now?
I’m able to run about 8km, doing fast road walking, and running in sections. I’m getting up at 5:25am. I love to hit the roads before the cars and the dog walkers – you just have more space and more time.
When I first started my 8km it took me an hour and 17 minutes, and I was doing it over sections. That was in November 2020. Now I’m doing it in an hour and seven minutes. My pace is getting quicker. I’m just trying to stretch myself, get those muscles switching on again.
My goal is to do the British 10K again. I did it in 2010 and to be back running on the Westminster Bridge would just be amazing.
There were times when I was walking around my kitchen with a quad stick, thinking, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ But then I walked around again slowly, and I said out loud, ‘Who’s going to do it then? You are.’ I was in a really low place and to be able to do what I’m doing now is a nice feeling.
A year ago today it took me 49mins to walk 2k locally in a small park.
Today Boris let me out for a 7.40am walk and I hit 22Mins.
27 mins knocked off. Had all the aids to get me walking again and now I am - never give up even when you are rock rock bottom like I was in icu.
🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/XHTfvczMnI— Chris Currie (@ChrisCurr1e) March 25, 2020
Why did running motivate you to get up and out of the wheelchair?
It’s just being free, isn’t it? Running along the rivers, running with friends at lunchtimes, going for a 5K round the park. It’s just feeling that sweat and getting those trainers on. You can’t beat that feeling. I love all sports but running for me is the best feeling. It’s a breath of fresh air, literally.
What takeaways from all this do you have for fellow runners?
With any goal, you have to take baby steps. Think of the outcome, but don’t attach yourself to it. With my journey I’ve not attached myself to, ‘I have to run’ or ‘I have to walk.’ I think with any athlete, if you have mini-steps it reduces your anxiety and your doubt.
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