Richard Few, a 41-year-old father from Clitheroe, Lancashire, is preparing to run the London Marathon, aiming to improve upon his previous time of five hours and 45 minutes. His preparation is remarkable given that he completed a lung resection 17 years ago, now competing with only one lung.
Few’s health crisis began in 2008 when he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. Initially, he believed he had a chest infection due to struggling with his breathing, but medical examination revealed a more serious condition. Attempts to reinflate the lung proved unsuccessful, leading doctors to remove it entirely. “I got married a few weeks later and it took a while to receive my head around life with one lung,” Few stated, as reported by the BBC.
Despite the significant physical challenge, Few views running as a way to demonstrate a normal life, albeit a more hard one. He describes the sensation of running with one lung as similar to “permanently wearing the facemasks we had for Covid,” noting increased breathlessness and a heightened heart rate. He offsets these challenges through rigorous training to improve his overall fitness.
Few is running to raise awareness and funds for Asthma Lung UK, a charity supported by approximately 500 of the 50,000 marathon participants, many of whom live with lung conditions. He hopes to complete the marathon in under five hours, dedicating the achievement to the one in five people in the UK affected by heart and lung conditions.
His motivation extends to his 12-year-old son, hoping to inspire him to avoid “laziness” in the future. The experience of adapting to life with a single lung has been transformative for Few, providing a renewed sense of purpose and a determination to overcome adversity.
Elsewhere, other runners have faced and overcome significant health challenges to compete in marathons. Chris Smith, a marathon runner from Great Sankey in Warrington, Cheshire, was told he would never run again after suffering double pneumonia, blood clots in both lungs, pleurisy, and septicaemia in 2020. He subsequently ran every street in his town, completing 368 miles and recording 1.2 million steps over 70 days. Jim Shaylor, 74, from Devon, had an operation in 2022 to collapse part of his lung due to COPD, and has since established a support group, Devon Breathers, assisting nearly 50 people a week with their breathing.
