Health ordeal as a teen made me a stronger person

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 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'.

"After lots of tests, I got a phone call like 'you need to come into hospital over the next week because we need to operate on a tumour growing in your face'.

"And that's when my whole world flipped upside down."

The tumour was cauterised and, after staying in hospital for a few days, Culling thought her health problems were over - until blood tests uncovered problems with her thyroid.

Culling had Graves' disease, an autoimmune condition causing an overactive thyroid, which can lead to symptoms like anxiety, weight loss, tremor and rapid heart rate.

"I thought 'not again, why me', why do I have two things going on while I'm doing my GCSEs, like isn't the tumour hard enough?," said Culling.

After trying different medications, she was put on steroids - which made her gain weight.

"My mindset was a real lack of self belief, I'd lost my confidence, I was really struggling with self image, I was really stressed at school, I wasn't achieving the grades I wanted to," she added.

"I was really struggling with panic attacks, just putting pressure on myself to get better."

Eventually, she had radiotherapy on her thyroid, which effectively "killed" it, as she said, and required her to be on medication for the rest of her life.

In the years that followed, she worked in advertising in London and temporarily moved back to Norfolk in lockdown.

Having already completed her first London Marathon the year before, she chose to run in the countryside as her permitted exercise.

"It definitely wasn't for speed, it definitely wasn't training, I didn't have Strava - it was just me, my everyday trainers, wired headphones and the world," she said.

"I really, really loved it.

"The 'runners' high' is a real thing - it makes you feel you can conquer the world. You suddenly feel more positive and you have a better outlook because you've achieved something hard that day."

She joined a running club on her return to London and realised she had potential when she completed the 2021 Manchester Marathon in a "really amazing" time of three hours and five minutes.

"There's a saying called pronoia, which is the opposite of paranoia, [and means] that the world is working with you, not against you.

"It is an amazing mindset for me to have, especially as growing up I was genuinely confused why so many bad things were happening to me.

"But I just thought luck would be on my side, and if I put the hard work in I would get the rewards that I really wanted."

Culling will be taking on the London Marathon again on Sunday 26 April, having finished 71st in the women's race at the Tokyo Marathon last month, in a time of two hours and 48 minutes.

You can listen to Anya Culling's No Limits series on BBC Sounds now.

Do you have a story suggestion for Norfolk? Contact us below.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.