Parkrunners Podcast
Parkrunners Podcast shares real stories from the global parkrun community—runners, walkers, and volunteers whose lives have been transformed by movement and connection. Hosted by Catherine Stenson, each episode celebrates courage, belonging, and the quiet power of showing up.
Parkrunners Podcast
Priti Kaur: Recovery, Resilience & Running in the London Marathon at 75!
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In this uplifting episode of The Parkrunners Podcast, I’m joined by the wonderful Priti Kaur — a 75-years-young parkrunner from Osterley parkrun whose story is full of grit, resilience and abundant positivity.
Priti is taking on the London Marathon for the second time, determined to cross the finish line and finally earn the medal she has dreamed of for so long. After first attempting the race in 2023, she was later diagnosed with myeloma, a blood cancer, and has since come through treatment and into remission. Now, with her trademark warmth, courage and determination, she’s back on the start line.
We talk about her love of movement, how parkrun helped her rebuild strength and joy, why community matters so much, and what it means to keep saying yes to life — even after the toughest of chapters.
This is a story of hope, comeback, and the power of putting one foot in front of the other. Give her a listen and show Priti some love!
Thank you for tuning in. It's been great to have you here.. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. Stay connected with us on social media (Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn) for updates and more inspiring parkrunners' stories. Until next time, keep running, keep smiling and keep on showing up!
Hi there, and a very warm welcome back to the Parkrunners podcast. I'm Catherine Stenson, your host, and today's guest is someone who brings such amazing warmth, joy, and quiet determination to the Parkrun community. Pritpal, or known to her family and friends as Pritti, is 75 years young, a proud parkrunner, and someone whose story is so much more than just running. After facing myeloma and coming through treatment intermission, she has slowly rebuilt her strength one step at a time. With Parkrun playing a really important part in that journey. She describes Parkrun as a form of meditation, a place of friendship, community, and joy. And now she's looking ahead to one of the biggest challenges of all, the London Marathon, which takes place this weekend. We're recording this on Thursday. Pretty, it is such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. You're very welcome. Now, can you tell our listeners where you're joining from today? I'm from Hayes Harlington, which is in London. Wonderful. So I would love to start um by asking you, how did you get into parkrun?
SPEAKER_00Parkrun, my husband and my daughter both were uh parkruns for a long, long time. And then when I had the cancer and became into remission, I will just slowly, slowly get into running because I need to do some some form of exercise. Just soon going to parkrun. You can walk, you can jog, whatever you want to do. I want to be back to into fitness. Lovely. And Pretty, have you always enjoyed being active? Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Always. I think from the most of the time, not in my when I was single, but when I got married, um, I had my daughter, I was I was size 10, and I wanted to be size 14. And uh when I was wearing my clothes, like really tight clothes, and my husband was like, Look at this fat coming out of your clothes, you know. He said me, you need to get rid of rid of that. So he said me, tomorrow he said me, put a gym gear on, he said we're gonna go for a run. I think he's the one who needs to look after myself, and he said, Your older age, if you carry on like this, it's not really good for health to look after after your after yourself. So actually, well, except my husband is the one that encouraged me to do exercise with running. Running is free anyway, it doesn't cost anything.
SPEAKER_01You can do it anywhere. Well, it's lovely to hear that you had that um positive encouragement and support from your husband because that moment after you have your babies and your children are very young, it's incredibly busy, very demanding. And sometimes it feels for mums and dads, I guess, that there's not enough space or time to get everything done. So fair fair play to your um your husband encouraging you to do that. Pretty what has movement given you over the years?
SPEAKER_00Uh, how can I say it keeps me a fit, I feel healthier, I'm more active. If you don't do nothing with your body, you become really sluggish. If you don't go out, you're gonna become just a household person watching TV or gonna be going and get eating something all the time. That's not really good for your health. I am one of those person, I want to keep active, and as I'm getting older, I think it's nice to be active. So I was lucky to have a husband who was would do something around the house, let me do my swimming or running, whatever I wanted to do. Oh. We have been like a family who actually enjoyed doing exercise and running.
SPEAKER_01And when I spoke to your daughter, Minrit um some months back, she was making the point that um in your culture that sometimes that's not a commonplace thing to find Sikh women running because they always prioritize the family and everything in the house over keeping fit. So it's really lovely to hear that your whole family had this commitment to staying fit and that habit, which I guess parkrun makes that a little easier because it's there every week for you.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and also in the parkrun, you find a lot of people they bring the kids as well to run with them as well, which is really nice because I did so the kids can follow the parents' footsteps as well. So it's I think parkrun is about gets people together. And especially nowadays, I find a lot of people very, very lonely as well. So when they come there, they make friends, they could they could run with them, have coffee afterwards. I think parkland is the best because the other thing also I think it is um how can I say it's really growing as well. The London Medical Fund, for example, I remember many years ago, it would be about 40,000 people, and I think uh uh the other year I had my cancer, year 23, they had 50, and this year they got 60,000 people running. It's actually in increasing people are increasingly. And the London marathon. Yeah, so 60,000 this year.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Well, let's as you've brought up the marathon, I'd love to talk to you about that because you've been on a bit of a health journey in the last uh four years. So before we jump into the marathon, can you tell us a little bit about that period when your health changed and and and and and you were faced with a cancer diagnosis?
SPEAKER_00Oh well, back in year 23, I had done more and some 10k one, a couple of half Americans, but never London marathon. It was my dream to do London marathon once in my lifetime. So in the year 23, my daughter and my husband, they were gonna run anyway. And my husband thinks, oh, that's a long run, I'm not gonna be able to do it. So when he said to my husband, Dad, Mum's gonna do it as well, let her do it. So me actually put her foot down, so dad, Mum wants to do it, we're gonna take her with us. So the three of us went together because we'll just go slowly, and at the end of the crossing line, we'll put the neck or the medal around one another. As we're walking on, you've always always our can walk slowly, so I'm gonna go ahead. I'll see you later. So he just went off. Then me and we carried on walking, jogging, walking, jogging, very enjoying myself and everything. At the mile 17, oh that gosh room had to go down the steps. So one day, as we were coming up the steps, I didn't feel right somehow. All of a sudden, my leg, my left leg, has got a very tight cramp in there. And I couldn't move, and it's such a pain of the almost crying. I was like, we were lucky and paramedical guy came out and we said we did sit down, then he um mastered my leg and uh gave me some uh look at it. And he said to my daughter, he said, I think your mom's not gonna be able to run anymore. I think you need to go ahead, and we'll take care of her. So she's okay, Mom, I'm gonna go, I'll get the matter for you. After about five minutes, I said to the guy, I said, Look, if I get off here and start walking now, is that okay? He said, Yes, as I got off, would you believe that? My both legs got cramped and that was even worse. It was such a bad pain at that point. Luckily the course wasn't very far. Somebody came quickly and took me in there at that point. That was that so I couldn't finish the learning marathon. But I did say to myself, I'm gonna come back to complete the learning marathon. And then in May, my back was hurting me. Uh I was sleeping all the time, had no energy, I couldn't pick things up. I would go to work and I'd be gonna need to sit down, and that went on for about a month or so. Then one day I would see my GP and GP's GP was, oh, just today, you give some strong pain killers. And that the the surgeon can give me some medication in China. So I said, Yeah, yeah, took it for a couple of days, and the third day when I was at work, I was serving someone all of a sudden I will perhaps all up to here. So I came home, they took me to the GP again, came all things. Anyway, cut the story short, my daughter got had had enough. Then she uh she called the uh NHS. Yes, you know that she she said, Look, my mom's been like that for the last five months. They keep giving you medication. We don't know what's wrong with her, we got to do some further tests on her. And then I remember they just they did the extra scan, bone scan, and then from then on they did some blood tests, and then called me and my daughter in and told me, Oh, you got blood cancer. And me and my daughter just cried. That's such a shock. It was a really shock. I think how can I say I was fit and healthy you know, before that had vegetarians. I said, Where did the myelomoth cancer come from? And then a week later the consultant ranks at me, have you decided what you want to do? Are you gonna have the treatment or are you gonna leave it to your fate? I said, uh, I think I'm gonna have to have treatment. And that for that went on for about six months. And then uh then was it the treatment, chemotherapy? Yes, it was chemotherapy that I was already it was very it was quite tough actually.
SPEAKER_01I have a lot of pain as well. Of course. Pretty what what helped you stay positive during your treatment and recovery?
SPEAKER_00I tell you. We have a temple with a which is good water. You know, we're Punjabi Sikh, we have called a good water, which is a temple. Okay, so they have holy water around the temple. If you drink that with the holy water, you can get better recovery as well. So some of our friends were going to India and they they were so good, they brought that water in a tight bottle for me, which I drink every day. Then also I'm very, very positive. That's what I just want what I'm trying to say. Yeah. So anyway, I think all the medication, fate, all these things, people's blessing for medication took six months. But somehow I pulled through and here we am.
SPEAKER_01And it's no surprise to me as I sit here chatting to you. You radiate energy and positivity, and the combination of medical intervention, your strong faith, your family, friends, all of this had to have played a very positive part in helping you recover. And you've now arrived a few days before. Your dream is about to come true. You are gonna be on the start line for the London Marathon on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00What does that mean to you, pretty? I'm really excited and I'm praying, and uh Jesus, please, God, you have you've got to help me. I want to cross a line, and have your dream come true, and I'll be your moon as well.
SPEAKER_01And it doesn't matter how long it takes. No, that doesn't matter because everybody has to do 26.2 miles. Yes, right? Yeah, yeah. And so the whether you run, walk, crawl, or jog, yes, or a combination. Yes, yes. I I have a feeling that you are gonna make this happen. Everyone's saying this, yes, thank you. And it's it's really heartening, and this is what the London marathon what makes it so special, especially when you live in this city and you you were thwarted before pain got in the way, and you know, you you had to change your plans. But your resilience is so inspiring and so encouraging because you have not allowed that experience to put you off on Sunday. You'll be on the lineup there with your daughter, minimate, right? So why was it important to you to give this another go?
SPEAKER_00Because, like I said, it's I want to once in my lifetime I want to complete 26.2 miles. It's gonna happen. I've got half a mountain, which is four and a half hours in time. London Mountain is something, I don't know. I just love the buzzway and the the music, you know how people are fine, people are cheering you. I just love the atmosphere, it's it's just me.
SPEAKER_01I promise you, I'm gonna be there on Sunday because my sister is running it, so I'm gonna be in cheering, and I'm gonna get your bib number, and I'm gonna make sure that we see each other. I don't be lying to you, big hug on the way around. We're so sweet. So definitely we will make that happen. What do you expect finishing the London Marathon is going to mean to you? Oh God.
SPEAKER_00It's just something I want to do over there, and I'm gonna say, I've done it. It's a dream, right? It's a dream, it doesn't matter how long it takes me, but I want to cross a line.
SPEAKER_01Not many people are out there dreaming big at 75 years young. Like I like that you are always looking to bring positivity to every situation you find yourself in and engage with your community. I know um the parkrun is a very important community to you, so I'm sure your fellow parkrunners will be cheering you on from the rafters as well. Just talking a little bit about parkrun, if you if you don't mind, because you have said before that you find parkrun is like meditation. Can you explain to our listeners what you mean by that?
SPEAKER_00Well, what it means is uh, for example, we do meditation in the morning when we get up and go now walking in the park once. What are walking your in my mind that prayers? Same time I've done my running as well. So I think I've run two or things in one go. And I feel like it clears my head. It's good for my um, oh god, what's the word? Your well-being. It's good for my well-being, yes. Yes. And also, um, when I do walk and job, I have to do it on my own. So I don't have to talk to somebody. I have to just concentrate on my meditation and finish on my run, then I feel oh my god, I feel I feel full of full of energy.
SPEAKER_01So what I what I what I think I hear you saying is that you find running a very um you know thoughtful moment for you that you can tune in to your own thoughts, clear your mind, you know, pray if that is um what feels right at the time, but just generally use it as a reset moment because we all live in a very busy, chaotic world. There's a lot of negative news around at the moment. So it's a very, it's a very worthwhile skill that you've built over the years, pretty, I might say so. The commitment to activity and this um joy you get from running and walking and jogging, it's actually a very sustaining habit that you've fostered and you've passed that on to your children. Yes, which is which is a great gift. So after the marathon is finished on Sunday, the weekly parkrun is great rhythm in all our lives. Do you have any specific goals for you for parkrun? Um, not sure what quite what you mean by that. Like some people like to do challenges like the alphabet challenge, go visit on your parking lot.
SPEAKER_00Like A, B, C, D, whatever. Yeah. We might be thinking about that in the future, about this. At the moment, what we do is you try to go to different different parks. It's just nice when you go to different parks, you see different people, you make different friends. And also, as men's doing this uh Asian woman run, she wants to promote in different areas to make more people come to run with us and to keep her and doesn't matter what color you are, we we welcome everybody. Is this part of the Asian women run community? We had two or three things. They saw us in our t-shirt, and you know what you said to us, I don't use the Asian women run. You said, Can we join your group as well? We said, of course you can. And now they love coming with us. It's so inclusive. Yeah, only not the uh women, even the husband's coming as well.
SPEAKER_01And some the kid as well, you know. Pretty when you finish the London Marathon, you strike me as the kind of woman who might have a few little ideas going on about what's next. So tell me what will be next.
SPEAKER_00Next thing what's gonna happen is the if if I complete the if I've completed my marathon, for example, right? I'm I'm gonna spread the word just saying, Look, I'm 75, I didn't give up after having my cancer and I mean being in remission and I still want to go to London marathon. What I did, anybody else can do it as well. You see? But please don't say I can't do that. If you keep saying I can't do it, then then you never will. But if you say I can do that, if then somehow you know it it can it can be done and you can do it. Everything is supposed to do it if you want to do it.
SPEAKER_01And I I completely agree. That is wonderful advice that you have just shared, and you're 75 years um old, you are embarking on this ad adventure, but you're putting the work in. You are putting it's it's a lot of work to train for a marathon, but it's both physical and mental the preparation for a marathon. And I think what you've what you've conveyed there to our listeners is that everything's possible if you believe. And you are such a great example, and it's not surprising. Pritpal has been all across the news this week. She's been on the BBC Breakfast News because she is creating a few ripples, because not many 75-year-olds are prepared to believe that they can actually make that happen. And I'll give you my heartiest best wishes for make dream come true this Sunday. Um, before we finish, I would like you to take a moment to reflect. And what are your what are you most proud about when you look back on on this journey?
SPEAKER_00I um well I'm very proud of, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm very proud of myself that uh I don't give up. I I keep on going. I'm still working. I don't really I don't wish to retire. I'm a shop assistant, and that keeps me going as well. Because when I go I have a lovely team of people I work with, so that's that keeps me going as well. So and the people when they see me at the parks far, a lot of women would say, I hope I'm lucky when I'm 75. I thought you can be if you want to. It's all about keeping going, being positive, you know, and and meditation and defeat.
SPEAKER_01So don't stop working and keep on training because you are you are injecting incredible energy into your own life, which I'm certain also keeps us happy and young when when you do that.
SPEAKER_00It does. Because I work with young people, they have they're about 25, 30s, you know. I mean, I don't think I'm 75, I think I'm one of them like 25, 30 myself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's like my husband will say to me, um, you know, he said I should act my age, you know. I said, What do you mean by acting my age? Because you're your age, let me live my life, you know. So if I'm very young, I'm young. It's only a number.
SPEAKER_01It's how you feel. It it is only a number, and it's not how you feel, but it's how you're acting that's actually making a difference. So well done to you. We're going to finish on a bit of fun, a rapid fire round. So just quick answers to these ones, pretty, if you're good with that. What's your favorite post-parkrun treat? Lovely pastries for the croissant or the nice cup of coffee. Yes. That's nice. Perfect. And who would you most like to run a park run with? My daughter. One word that describes park run for you.
SPEAKER_00I love parkrun. Just love it. I should love it because you meet different people, you've made friends, running with other people, you make you give yourself fit as well. It's nice.
SPEAKER_01What's the one thing that keeps you smiling on a tough day? My fate. What's one place, pretty, you'd still love to do a park run in? Would be Singapore. Singapore. Fantastic. Pretty that is all we have time for, but I want to say a very, very big thank you for taking the time, especially as it's at the final countdown to your marathon challenge on Sunday. I wish you every success. I will be willing you across that finish line and look forward to seeing the social media posts with your medals.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. You've been wonderful. God bless you. Good lucky to you.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you too. It's been a total pleasure. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us on the Parkrunners podcast. I'm Catherine Stenson, and I love sharing stories from our amazing Parkrun community. So if today's conversation has inspired you, why not share it with a friend? Or better still, bring them along to your next parkrun. Now, don't forget to hit follow so you never miss a new parkrun story. Until next time, keep moving, keep smiling, and I'll see you at the start line.