Health1 min read

Chemotherapy left her feet too swollen for shoes but this single mum kept running: 'It saved my life'

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

First adopting running in 2015 to manage stress, Hie expanded her routine to 100km per week and transitioned from marketing to become a clinical massage therapist in 2018. Shortly after learning of her cancer diagnosis in 2019, she completed the 55km Vietnam Jungle Marathon before undergoing surgery to remove her right breast. When chemotherapy caused her feet to swell beyond fitting into shoes, she continued running barefoot along the Kallang Park Connector to ease nausea and stay resilient for her family.

Key points

  • Regular running served as a critical mental and physical coping mechanism for Hie during…: Regular running served as a critical mental and physical coping mechanism for Hie during both divorce and cancer treatment.
  • Extreme side effects like severe nausea and physical swelling failed to halt her dedicati…: Extreme side effects like severe nausea and physical swelling failed to halt her dedication to maintaining her running routine.
  • A profound commitment to staying strong for her two children motivated Hie to endure diff…: A profound commitment to staying strong for her two children motivated Hie to endure difficult medical and personal hardships.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Cassandra Hie started running to cope with her divorce, then kept going through breast cancer and chemotherapy. Now 53, the single mum is a competitive runner and Hyrox athlete with more than 10 top-three finishes since her cancer diagnosis.

Her feet were too swollen to fit into running shoes so she ran without them – bare feet pounding on hard pavement along the Kallang Park Connector.

In 2019, Cassandra Hie was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, and the drugs caused the swelling. They also made her feel very sick.

“There’d be days when I couldn’t even open my eyes. I’d just lie in bed. But the moment I could get up, I’d run,” she said.

Hie had another unusual running ritual. She would draw on her eyebrows before each 6km to 10km run. The chemotherapy had not only taken her hair, but her lashes and brows too.

“Sometimes, I’d come back from my run with only one eyebrow. I looked like an alien,” she said.

So, Hie began to run with a brow pencil in her pocket, checking her brows…

Health