Young Edinburgh woman diagnosed with rare cancer celebrates one-year anniversary with 60km run fundraiser
Leigh van der Merwe was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in August 2025.
A woman who was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer is undertaking a huge fundraising challenge to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Leigh van der Merwe, a property manager who lives in Stockbridge, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 23.
She had only just moved from her home in South Africa to Edinburgh when her cancer diagnosis was made in August 2025.
Leigh’s first sign of something not being quite right came in December 2025, when she received a chest x-ray as part of a health check up to gain her visa to move to Scotland.
Doctors picked up on a mass in her sternum but after a biopsy, she was told that it was benign.
Life carried on for Leigh but the mass in her chest didn’t appear to be disappearing.
However, her doctor persisted and ordered a routine CT scan.
Leigh, who is now 24, said: “A week prior to the CT scan, I started experiencing numbness from my waist down. My doctor then called me back after my CT scan and told me there's a lot of lymph nodes pressing against my spine and it was slowly starting to paralyse me.”
She added: “I was a bit in denial to be honest. Prior to my diagnosis, I was training for a half marathon, going to the gym on a daily basis. Me and my partner were very active and I never showed any symptoms besides a swollen lung.
“I think when the doctor did tell me it was cancer, it didn’t feel real because in my head I still felt healthy.
“Everyone has this idea that if you get a cancer diagnosis, you’ll feel sick immediately or you’ll show some sort of symptom.”
Leigh then underwent chemotherapy almost immediately and finished her course in January.
She has been on the road to recovery ever since getting the all clear, with her mobility slowly returning to normal.
Now she is taking on a 60km challenge for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), which helped her through her cancer journey.
Leigh said: “From the get-go, my social worker was there from my first chemo session, giving me loads of advice and distracting me while I was undergoing treatment.
“One of the big things with TCT is peer events. They would organise events to meet up with other young people with the same diagnosis or other types of cancer, which created a little support work.
“I'll be honest, when I first got diagnosed, I did not want anything to do with peer events. I think that was just also the case of not wanting to admit that I'm sick. But I’m glad I did.
“From my own experience, the last thing I wanted to do was always be sitting between healthy people. I envied their life, so being with other people that were also going through active treatment, it made me feel like I had support and wasn’t alone in all of this.”
As part of her fundraiser, Leigh is hoping to raise £1,000 for the charity by running at least 2km every day over 30 days, totalling 60km by the end of the month.
She said: “I really wanted to run again. Initially I was aiming for 10km or a half marathon, but I took a step back and realised that I have to be realistic about what my body can handle. 2km every day feels achievable but still a challenge for me.”
Leigh’s fundraiser, which you can find on GoFundMe, has so far raised £255 of her £1,000 target at the time of writing.
Leigh added that her friends and family have been supporting her so far ahead of the challenge, saying: “My partner, Aran, has joined me on every run so far. He also took me to every appointment so he has been my rock.
“I’ve also invited some of my fellow peers from TCT who are up for it to join me on a run here and there.”