LIBERATION THROUGH CANCER

Three years ago Adele Roberts (ND Pharmacology 2000) feared the worst. The-then 42-year-old was told by her doctor she had stage two bowel cancer. “I didn’t know anything about it,” she says. “I just heard the word and that was it.”

Adele felt fit, healthy, and was at the pinnacle of her career – she’d recently become the first black woman to host the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show and had just completed two marathons.

Her symptoms? A bloated tummy, lethargy, and blood in the stool. “I thought I was going to be diagnosed with an irritable bowel. I was shocked.

“But then the doctor told me they could help me. Suddenly I’d been given a second chance.”

Having spent her career getting “caught up on the past” and “worrying about the future” Adele adopted a new mantra. “All we have is today,” says Adele. “Cancer was freeing. Things happen, but all that matters is how you respond.”

In Adele’s case, that meant setting the Guinness World Record time for running a marathon with a stoma (in a remarkable 3 hours 30 minutes, a record which Adele has since broken) – less than a year after completing chemotherapy. She trained every day through treatment – despite sores on her tongue, hands and feet which left her “weeping” during the night, unable to open bottles or walk across the room. Within 18 months, she was gliding across TV screens to finish third on ITV’s Dancing on Ice. And most recently, she has set about completing six world major marathons in the space of eight months in a cumulative world record time.

“I think happiness is a choice. I chose to be positive.”

A new outlook, which was complemented by a dogged determination forged through Adele’s upbringing. Adele’s dad was a builder and her mum worked a number of jobs; Adele was the eldest of their six children. “I know hard work pays off,” she says. “Dad taught me that if you lay one brick at a time you’ll end up with a house.”

Under the guise of eventually becoming a doctor, Adele chose Leeds for its unrivalled night life. “I secretly wanted to be a DJ, and I’d set my sights on a night club called Speed Queen. I did everything in my power to get a job there. Girls didn’t really DJ back then – people thought I was pretty weird.” She would eventually drop out of her degree to pursue the dream, but not before joining Leeds Student Radio, which helped set the foundations for her future career.

Adele insists she was “never talented”, yet she has built a dedicated following – including royal admirers: “Prince William told me recently that when he worked the air ambulance he used to text into my Radio 1 show under a fake name,” Adele laughs. “I gave him shout outs all the time without realising who it was.”

Most comfortable on the radio and off camera, Adele put herself front and centre once her stoma was fitted. Her new companion – which she named Audrey – was a surprise after Adele woke up from surgery and looked under the sheets. “It looked like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors, so that’s where the name came from.” Adele documented her journey through social media posts, and Audrey starred on the cover shoot for Women’s Health magazine.

“I’ve been the odd one out for a lot of my life – the only gay person in my close family or the only mixed-race person in my class. I understand the power of seeing someone representing you, someone who looks like you. People with stomas shouldn’t feel shame, and that’s why I try to represent them.”

In Adele’s latest running challenge she is fundraising for Cancer Research UK and the Attitude Magazine Foundation, which supports a range of causes across the LGBTQ community. She is competing with the demands of Audrey, which means a lot of “spinning plates”, balancing the need to eat food and gels during the events with the time-costly consequence of emptying the bag. But Adele wants to show what is possible.

She approaches it with the same determined positivity she did her cancer diagnosis. “What’s the worst that can happen?” Adele says. “It already has. And I survived.”