Iain Ward was told he’d be dead in a year — so why does he feel so alive?
The 35-year-old fitness trainer, who’d worked a lifetime to keep trim and healthy, saw his world come crashing down after a shock diagnosis of terminal brain cancer in 2019.
But instead of giving up, the grim news inspired him, he said, to live as much and as meaningfully as he can, running marathons and raising money for research.
“I’ve got a short shelf life. I was dealt a s–tty hand, but there are ways I can use that,” Ward told The Post.
The unlucky Irishman, now living in London, recounted that within hours of receiving the painful diagnosis, he began researching how a person might monetize marathoning. He was inspired to learn that one runner had at one point raised $3 million via corporate sponsorships — but he was certain he could do better, and hopes to break a donation world record.
And so, he’s been going full speed ahead since Day 1, or as fast as he someone can while undergoing cancer treatments. As a man on a mission, Ward has now participated in 15 marathons, even if sometimes he ends up walking.
“The whole point of it [is] doing things that are not [typically] stereotyped for people with cancer,” he said. “The things that make people say, ‘Hey wait a minute, he’s not supposed to be doing that! He’s supposed to be in a bed, looking sad.'”
The former gaming influencer — Ward proudly sports the Rebellion symbol from “Star Wars” as a tattoo — has also become something of a social media hero, earning himself 5.5 million followers on TikTok and another 6.7 million on Instagram. Friends began calling him the “King of Chemo” — and the internet soon became his loyal subjects.
But for this accidental royal, the crowning achievement will come in November, when Ward will run seven races in seven days across seven continents — including the NYC Marathon — to rally more folks behind his noble cause, even with the clock ticking louder every month.
“The doctors originally said that I have a life expectancy of about five years and we’re coming up on a year to go,” Ward shrugged.
“We’re going to be starting off in Antarctica, sleeping on the plane.”
Running to chemotherapy
The healthy gym habitue was blindsided by the bad news. Doctors noticed signs of a tumor while screening him for a medical trial and it turned out to be fatally malignant.
While fighting through cancer has been anything but easy, the same goes for long-distance racing and each day brings its own set of unique challenges.
But Ward had one advantage, at the outset — his peak physical fitness.
“During chemotherapy, I was actually running, cycling to the hospital seven miles away from my house,” he said. “There have been peaks and troughs, but I’ve been working through. It’s been fun.”
The worst lows so far have come at times when he was receiving radiotherapy — which threatened to bring him to a standstill.
“I was continuing my fitness, my running on a regular basis, but I started dropping down times. I was getting slower,” he said.
But Ward said he’s looked to the “Rocky” legend for inspiration — clinging to the idea of just keeping going, even if there were days he’d be walking instead of running.
“I knew that I could kind of piggyback off of that. So it motivated me,” he said.
And when it comes to the marathons, he openly admitted it hasn’t “been like the Olympics.”
“The best I’ve done recently was in Edinburgh — [and] I stopped loads of times just to walk,” Ward admitted.
The doctors’ original predictions should mean that he has a year left to live — but recent scans are giving him hope there’ll be more time, he said.
So far, he’s raised about $500,000, saying he’s not focused too much on breaking records at this point.
But keeps adding marathons to his calendar — even as the so-called final year draws nearer to a close.
“I don’t know, maybe toward Christmas, I might sort of be like, f–k it, I’m going to run another one,” he said.
“Who’s going to stop me?”
