Health ordeal as a teen made me a stronger person

Anya Culling completed the Tokyo Marathon in Japan last month [Anya Culling] An elite marathon runner has told how health conditions in her teens spurred her to grasp every opportunity in life. Anya Culling, 27, from Watton, Norfolk, completed the Copenhagen Marathon in a personal best of two hours and 34 minutes in 2023, having taken running seriously in lockdown. As a teenager, she had been doing her GCSEs at Thetford Grammar School when hospital tests revealed a facial tumour and thyroid disease.

"The whole ordeal has made me such a strong person; it really shaped me, it made me really grateful for how amazing life can be," she said. "I also met a lot of people in hospitals struggling with conditions far greater than mine, which made me feel so lucky for the life I've been given. "I told myself I would live life to the fullest and take every opportunity that comes my way.

" Culling came 16th in the 2024 London Marathon after joining the elite runners [Anya Culling] Culling has had a rapid rise in the sport . From a four-hour finish in the London Marathon in 2019 to shaving two hours off her time in Copenhagen, she has earned her spot with the elite runners at marathons around the world. She finished in 16th place at London in 2024, and got her best London time last year, when she chose to get among the event's charity runners.

Speaking at the start of a new BBC Sounds series, Anya Culling's No Limits, she admitted losing her "spark and confidence" during what had been an otherwise fantastic childhood and adolescence. "I was diagnosed with a tumour in my face, in my right cheek, behind my eye, and it was found on the off-chance, after an eye test," she explained. "I remember being told 'we're not quite sure on something, but you don't need glasses'.