One runner’s journey to return to Ottawa Race Weekend after beating Stage 4 cancer

Olivier Duhaime is making an emotional journey from the hospital to the starting line at Ottawa Race Weekend. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

As Ottawa Race Weekend approaches and tens of thousands of runners prepare to toe the start line, one local man’s story stands apart—defined by survival, and the chance to give back.

Olivier Duhaime will be running his first marathon since being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2021 and receiving a bone marrow transplant in 2023.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve done in my past life… I kind of learned when you go deep down, there’s rainy days, but there’s going to be sunny ones also,” he said.

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Duhaime ran his first marathon at 18 and running has been central to his life ever since. He had completed ultramarathons and four Ironman triathlons, even running more than 400 kilometres from Quebec City to Ottawa for Canada’s 150th anniversary.

But in the fall of 2021, something changed. A persistent pain in his back—something he initially tried to push through—began to worsen. Soon, it became impossible to ignore.

A scan revealed two tumours along his spine and one near his chest. At just 32 years old, with an eight-month-old daughter at home, Duhaime was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.

“We had just had a daughter,” he recalls. “I remember thinking… what’s next?”

He began chemotherapy. At first, there was hope.

Then the cancer returned twice, each time more aggressive.

He says he continued to fight the cancer for his daughter. “I didn’t know if I’d see her grow up,” he said.

Eventually, Duhaime was referred to The Ottawa Hospital, where a specialized team developed a more aggressive treatment plan of high-dose chemotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant.

The treatment was intense: hours of chemotherapy each day, designed to wipe out the disease, but also his immune system.

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“I still remember getting in to (the Ottawa Hospital) and the nurse that took my hand and said you’re in good hands here,” he said.

In May 2023, what transplant teams call “Day 0,” he received his stem cells, marking what he now calls the start of a new life.

“You’re basically a newborn again,” he said.

Recovery was slow. His body had to rebuild from scratch. But one moment stayed with him.

From his hospital bed, only days after the bone marrow transplant, he turned on the television and saw runners crossing the finish line at Ottawa Race Weekend.

“I just tuned on the TV on the Sunday morning, and it’s the Ottawa Marathon that was playing, and it caught me. I think I cried at the moment because I’ve done that race so many times. And at that time, you’re so, so low in your life,” he said.

“I didn’t even know if the bone marrow transplant was going to work and if the cancer was going to come back. But I was like, all right, I’ll be back in that marathon that I love so much.”

This spring, he will.

Nearly three years after his transplant, Duhaime, now 37, is set to run the marathon, this time raising funds for the hospital that saved his life.

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“The research and the medication are changing every day. But we need to get more specific chemo… if we can get some more medication that’s going to only aim at the cancer cell, (chemo) is going to be a little bit less bad for you. For the patient, it’s less hard.”

The road back hasn’t been easy. Returning to running took time, patience, and persistence.

But life has moved forward, too.

Duhaime and his partner are now welcoming their second child—a moment he once wasn’t sure he would see.

On race day, his family will be there. Cheering him on.

And for Duhaime, the meaning of the moment is simple.

“There is going to be a lot of goosebumps,” he said, “just thinking about that… it will be quite emotional to see people that I know, family that have been there and people that’s been with me all those past three years. That’s my story and what I’ve been through.”

The Ottawa Marathon will be held on Sunday.