Photography: Carmen Bird
When Tracie Rundle was diagnosed with more than 30 cancerous melanoma tumours in 2024, she knew her son would be scared. So she made him a promise.
“This is not going to take over our life – I am going to beat it,” she told her then 17-year-old son Josh.
Then she set about proving it by running a 10km event the day after her first immunotherapy treatment.
“When I got diagnosed, I was determined that life was not going to change,” says Tracie, 52.
“I was not going to lie in bed and cry. We were going to make the treatment plan and make it work around our lifestyle, and keep making plans.”
For the past two and a half years, she’s never wavered in this approach, even when it means lacing up her shoes for races while recovering from surgery. Her resilience is rooted in a painful family history. Her dad John died from lung cancer and two of her sisters, Helen and Carol, died from breast cancer. Josh was just six when he witnessed the final week of one of his aunties’ lives.
“To him, the word cancer was scary,” she says.
“So my determination came from showing him that it wasn’t going to look like what he’d seen before.”
The shocking diagnosis
Thinking back to where her own cancer journey began, Tracie says she first discovered a hard, golf ball-sized lump in her armpit while taking a shower in March 2024.
Her immediate fear was breast cancer, like her sisters. With her family history, doctors initially assumed the same. Instead, after scans and a biopsy, she was diagnosed with a rare form of melanoma.
Even more shockingly, a PET scan revealed more than 30 tumours scattered from her neck down.
“I was just looking at the scan, going, ‘Oh, I’m going to die.’”
At the time, Tracie says the specialist told her if it had been even a few years earlier, the diagnosis could have been terminal. But advances in systemic treatments meant there was hope.
Within three weeks of her diagnosis, thanks to private health insurance, Tracie started immunotherapy treatment. The very next day, she took to the start
line for a 10km race.
“For me, the alternative was lying in bed crying and that just wasn’t an option,” shares Tracie, who has always loved running and almost never misses starting the day on her treadmill.
“I do the runs because it gives me a goal to stay motivated, adventures to go on as a family [husband Shane and Josh accompany her to all the events, often camping] and in the running world, there’s also a real community of support.”
The fight wasn’t over
Three months after starting treatment, Tracie went in for a follow-up scan. She’d been warned it wasn’t uncommon for tumours to look bigger before they start to shrink.
Instead, she was surprised to see all 30 tumours had disappeared. To celebrate being cancer free, she ran a 24km event, which she entered when she was first diagnosed to give her something to look forward to.
“I’d just turned 50 and I always said I’d run my first half then, so I decided I was still going to book one,” recalls Tracie.
Then in March 2025, Tracie found another lump in her armpit and faced the dreaded diagnosis – her cancer was back. The tumour and nine lymph nodes were removed, only for three more surgeries to be needed when she says it was discovered some cancerous cells were missed.Today she is still undergoing immunotherapy, regular monitoring and surgery as tumours are detected.
“It’s a bit like playing whack-a-mole,” explains Tracie, who most recently had surgery in September to remove another lymph node.
“But I’ve always said I have so much to fight for.”
Running with a purpose
Through it all, Tracie has kept smiling – and running.
“I’ve got a goal to run 350km in races this year,” she enthuses.
An ambassador for the nationwide Aramex Kiwi Walk & Run Trail Series, Tracie has run across the finish line of every event in 2026, all while raising money for Camp Quality, which supports children and families affected by cancer.
“If I can use something that helps me, running and walking, to raise money and awareness for them, then that makes every kilometre even more meaningful.”
Despite everything she has faced, Tracie says she’s learned to be grateful for cancer. It’s changed her outlook on life, strengthened family relationships and shown her just how many people care.
“This has been a gift,” she reflects.
“I don’t think many people can or would say that about cancer, but it really has been a gift.”
To register for the Aramex Kiwi Walk & Run Trail Series, visit kiwiwalkrun.co.nz
To support Tracie’s fundraising, see givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/fitness-goals-while-fighting-cancer
