Hagen Hopkins
For avid runner Kristina Cameron, there’s no greater sense of satisfaction than crossing a marathon finish line.
Each time, the 42km feat means all the more as she knows what it’s like to be bed-bound and paralysed battling rare illness Guillain-Barré syndrome.
“I was just about crying at the end of my first marathon in Queenstown in 2019,” recalls the 38-year-old. “To think there was a time I couldn’t even walk and now I’ve done this! It’s a huge sense of achievement.
“I don’t think I would have the slightest interest in running if I hadn’t been paralysed. Something about losing the use of your legs makes you want to use them.”
It was 15 years ago when Kristina, then 23, woke up dizzy with tingling in her fingertips. She’d been out the night before, so initially assumed it was an odd hangover symptom.
“I got a friend to take me to the doctor and was diagnosed with vertigo. But the following day, the pins and needles were up to my elbows and I couldn’t move without holding on to something. By the third day, I couldn’t walk at all, and pins and needles were in my face and feet.”
Admitted to hospital, doctors were initially baffled.
“When they started doing tests, they were worried I’d had a stroke,” tells Kristina. “After about 13 hours, I was admitted to a ward and told me I had Guillain-Barré syndrome. I’d never heard of it, so I didn’t know if it was better or worse than a stroke.”
The rare condition causes patients’ immune systems to harm their nerves, resulting in weakness and sometimes paralysis. It affects around one in 100,000 people globally and Aotearoa has the highest rate in the developed world.
“One day I was fine, three days later I was completely paralysed, even my eyes,” she shares. “I was terrified but I just had to wait and see.”
Clocking up 70km a week, Kristina says, “I have a drive I never had before.”
The data analyst, who was studying software engineering at the time, spent three weeks in hospital and a rehabilitation unit. Treatment options are limited but blood product immunoglobulin helps lesson symptoms.
“They couldn’t make it in New Zealand at the time, so were importing it from Australia. I had the blood of 1000 Australians in me at one point!”
Gradually, Kristina regained the use of her muscles, but it was a slow road to recovery. She left her studies, moved back home with her parents and was unable to work full-time for five years afterwards due to chronic exhaustion. This also made it incredibly hard to exercise.
“I had gained quite a bit of weight, so I started walking. I had to wait until my energy levels were high enough, then one day something flipped and I thought, ‘What about running?'”
Her initial goal was 5km, but Kristina was quickly hooked and now has more than 10 half marathons and four full marathons under her belt, and has her sights set on completing an ultra-marathon of 50km or longer this year. “It’s a great form of exercise and there are also the mental gains,” she asserts.
It’s also brought new friends into her life, like her self-appointed coach and fellow Kāpiti Running and Tri Club member, Peter Ellis.
“He’s in his eighties now but Peter has run more than 70 marathons in his time,” says Kristina. “He writes me training plans and got me through my second marathon in Hawke’s Bay in under four hours.
With partner Andrew and mentor and Weekly reader Peter.
“He likes to pile on the kilometres and is always telling me I’m not running enough. I’ll say, ‘I did 75km this week,’ and he’ll joke, ‘When are you going to do a real run?'”
Kristina is incredibly grateful for Peter and his wife Patty’s friendship and guidance, and the couple feel the same. In fact, it was long-time reader Peter who wrote to the Weekly, telling us about his impressive friend Kristina.
Also in her corner is devoted partner Andrew Morris, 41. He’s one of the few non-runners in Kristina’s life but is very supportive of her goals.
Generally, Kristina runs six days a week, clocking up 70km total on average. She jokes it’s a far cry from the child who once used to fake sickness to get out of PE at school, but she can’t imagine life without it now.
“With running, everything seems to fall into place,” she tells. “Guillain-Barré syndrome is the best and the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It taught me I can do anything I put my mind to, and I have a drive and motivation I never had before.”
