"I didn't care if I came last, I was going to finish," she said.

And it was as she came across the finishing line of the 6km women's run that she was greeted with the news on the loud speaker that her son, Lewis Duerden, had won the men's 6km run.

It was a high point for Mrs Duerden who had been building up to the run after months of surgeries and cancer treatments.

She said this year's event was the most special one yet, having run in four or five Surf 'T' Surf events in the past.

"I've been running for years," she said, starting 12 years ago when Lewis was about three years old.

Despite being diagnosed with breast cancer, Mrs Duerden said she was determined to keep running.

"I had a couple of operations, and then I had six months of chemo and five months of radiation which I finished in August," she said.

"Surgery got rid of it all and I just call the chemo and radiation therapy maintenance to make sure it was definitely all gone and there were no little bits anywhere else."

At the end of September she started walking and running again in preparation for Sunday's event.

"I'd walk and then run, and then just building up from there," she said.

Mrs Duerden had tried to keep running throughout her treatment but when it went to weekly appointments she had to scale back.

"During the three-weekly treatment I was still running," she said.

"There was 10 bad days and 10 good days, and during those good days I'd do a couple of runs as well."

And while she stop running when she was undergoing weekly treatment, she did keep walking every day.

"They said exercise to helped. That was all I needed to be told so I walked every day," she said.

There to greet her with a big hug at the finish line on Sunday was Jodie Irving who she had been chatting to before the race.

"We've both been running for a few years," she said.

"I saw her at the start and said I was just happy to finish.

"I was a bit behind her all the way and she just waited for me which was rather nice.

"They were making announcements just as I was still hugging Jodie and they said the winner of the men's 6km was Lewis Duerden.

"I jumped up and down like a mad woman then in happiness.

"I just couldn't believe it."

Her other son, Isaac, also ran in the 10km Surf 'T' Surf event.

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