Lis Merrick is the managing director of a mentoring and coaching consultancy. She was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019, and lives with a stoma after surgery. Lis is a keen runner (since her cancer recovery), and in April 2026 she will run her third marathon as part of team Bowel Research UK.
Before her second marathon for us, Lis shared her story and explained what running has meant to her since her diagnosis. Now, she tells us what’s prompted her to run the London Marathon for a third time for Bowel Research UK.
It’s incredible how quickly life plans can change. I learned this when I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019. I received the diagnosis shortly before my 60th birthday. I didn’t realise then that I would need three operations and be living with a stoma at the end of it. The operations were tough and left me feeling physically and mentally exhausted. Neither did I expect it would take two or three years to get over the treatment and there would be mental as well as physical scars afterwards.
However, six years after my diagnosis, my life plans have changed again, but this time in a more positive way. I’m feeling so well and determined not to let my stoma define me. With my 66th birthday approaching, I had plans to retire this year from my work, where I am currently focusing in the humanitarian sector and on social impact projects. However, with the turbulence in the world right now, combined with me feeling recovered and energised, I couldn’t walk away from my work supporting people whose lives can be transformed through coaching and mentoring.
After treatment for cancer, I felt very nervous and lived with a constant fear it might come back. I worried each time I had to go in for blood tests and colonoscopies. On one occasion, the medical team found something worrying on a CT scan. Thankfully it wasn’t cancer, but it was a mass formed by adhesions from previous operations. It took six weeks to get the all clear, but the nervous energy I used in this period knocked me back a year in terms of mental recovery.
There were five key things that happened last year to help push me to make bolder decisions that aren’t restricted by my anxieties and experience with cancer. Firstly, running the London Marathon with my daughter for Bowel Research UK was such an incredible experience. Running was a key part of my recovery – mentally more so than physically. I’m so pleased to be running the London Marathon for the third time next year for Bowel Research UK.
Secondly, attending the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as a Bowel Research UK volunteer to tell people about their gold-award winning microbiome garden was a highlight. I’ve always enjoyed gardening but have worried about the increased risk of getting a hernia doing heavy lifting with a stoma. I’ve had these concerns about running, too. But attending the Chelsea Flower Show was a real inspiration, and I’m now trying to replicate a mini microbiome garden in my own garden. Now my physical stamina is back, I manage at least an hour or two of gardening after work each day.
Alongside these two events, I also completed an ultra-marathon in the French Alps with my daughter, celebrated my company’s 20th anniversary with a team and client garden party and I travelled to Egypt in September. I used to travel there regularly with work 35 years ago, but I have held back on major travel because I’ve worried about tummy upsets and digestive issues. It was brilliant to be back in Egypt, and it’s given me the confidence to travel further – with Peru next on the list!
I’m determined not to let my stoma define me, and to continue having more adventures. It’s thanks to research done by charities like Bowel Research UK that I am able to do this, and that’s why I will continue fundraising for them for the London Marathon in 2026. So many people give up exercising and a lot of other things in life when they live with a stoma. As I’ve discovered, it doesn’t need to stop you from doing anything!