Traci Meades ran the Boston Marathon virtually from Calgary during the pandemic.Supplied
The organizer: Traci Meades
The pitch: Raising $100,000 and climbing
The cause: Ovarian Cancer Canada
When Traci Meades turned 50 she decided to challenge herself by running a half marathon. She ran a full marathon a year later and qualified for the 2018 Boston Marathon.
A few months before the race she went to see her doctor for a routine checkup. “She kept pushing me and asking; anything else? anything else?” Ms. Meades recalled from her home in Calgary where she works as a retirement planner. Ms. Meades mentioned that she hadn’t felt well during a recent family trip and the doctor immediately ordered an ultrasound.
The test revealed that Ms. Meades had early stage ovarian cancer and she had surgery in February, 2018, to remove a cyst.
“I was super lucky,” she said. “We caught it early. I had a slow grower, which was super rare, and we caught it at Stage 1. So no chemo, no radiation.”
Ms. Meades, who is now 58, soon returned to running but marathons became more than a hobby. She now had what her husband Mark Hougen called “a vendetta against ovarian cancer” and she dedicated her running to raising money for research into the disease.
Since her surgery, Traci Meades has ran the Boston Marathon twice, including in 2021.Supplied
Since her surgery, Ms. Meades has run the Boston Marathon twice, including remotely in 2020 during the pandemic, and the Chicago Marathon. She’s participating in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 3 and next spring she’ll be at the start line for the London Marathon. She also hopes to run in the Berlin and Tokyo marathons.
She’s raised close to $100,000 so far for Ovarian Cancer Canada and TEAL, Tell Every Amazing Lady about Ovarian Cancer, and hopes to raise much more. “I’ve kind of combined my desire to keep pushing myself to run marathons with the desire to be one of the top fundraisers for ovarian cancer, to see if we can finally get a world without ovarian cancer,” she said.
She’s forever grateful to her pushy doctor and says early detection is vital. “I feel incredibly lucky, and I know most women who get ovarian cancer aren’t that lucky,” she said. “So I just wanted to help.”