Marathon running gran declared cancer free after beating disease five times

An ‘inspirational’ grandmother who has beaten cancer an astonishing five times is celebrating after finally being declared cancer free.

Natalie Yates-Bolton, from Chadderton, has suffered two bouts of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has also had breast cancer three separate times.

The 57-year-old grandmother of two has endured a staggering 11 operations, 30 sessions of chemotherapy and 55 rounds of radiotherapy.

Now, the senior lecturer in nursing at the University of Salford has been told she is cancer-free after spending the last six years on a type of targeted cancer drug called palbociclib (Ibrance).

Doctors at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, where Mrs Yates-Bolton has received care for the last 21 years, say all scans show the cancer has gone.

To celebrate Mrs Yates-Bolton is setting herself new exercise challenges. To date, she has completed six marathons, three ultra-marathons and three triathlons.

Last year, she completed the Isle of Wight ultra-marathon and ran around half the island. She also walked the third leg of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail through France with her mother, Myra, 80.

Over time, Mrs Yates-Bolton has also gained a PhD, trained as an executive coach, and learned to become a milliner.

She told the PA news agency: “If somebody who didn’t know my story heard I’d had cancer five times, they might think I’d been unfortunate.

“But I see it the other way – I’ve been really fortunate because I’ve got family members and friends who hadn’t been as lucky as me and didn’t get the five chances that I’ve had to get the successful outcomes from treatment.

“That’s definitely my feeling about the whole journey.

“I work with health teams in low-income countries and I’m just so well aware that