Paula Radcliffe on why she's running Jane Tomlinson's Leeds 10k this year

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Paula Radcliffe's idea of taking it easy is different to most people's.

Six months pregnant with her second child, she is still putting the miles in. Fourteen a day at the last count. At the weekend she eased round the New York 10k in a respectable 44.36 minutes. She's also just been named as patron for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal and next month will take her place on the starting line of the charity's Run For All in Leeds.

"Honestly I am winding down, New York was really just a bit of fun," she says. "I ended up slightly twisting my ankle. It was nothing serious, but I had to walk the last part of it.

"By the time of the Leeds run, I won't be able to go very fast at all, but however long it takes I'll get round."

Radcliffe was famously back in training just 12 days after the birth of her first daughter, Isla, and admits she finds it difficult to switch off. Running is in her bones, but this time she is determined not to rush back to training and she sounds almost convincing.

"The pregnancy has gone better than I thought, but I know the birth will be the real test," she says. "I am going to take it easy afterwards, but running is what I do. It's funny, Isla is just beginning to understand a little of what I do. She stands beside me on the treadmill and shouts 'ready steady go!'"

While Radcliffe won't be looking to set any records in Leeds, the race is important for more personal reasons.

She and Jane first met in 2002, two years after the mother-of-three had been told her breast cancer was incurable, and the pair soon became friends. Like many other people, Radcliffe remembers being continually amazed at the stamina which saw Jane complete the London Marathon, the Ironman UK Triathlon and cycle 4,200 miles across the US.

By the time of her death in 2007, at the age of 43, Jane had raised more than 185m and had set in motion plans for an annual 10k race in Leeds which would ensure the fund-raising continued. It was an impressive legacy and one which Radcliffe has always been keen to support.

"After I presented Jane with a Sports Personality of the Year Award we bumped into each other quite regularly at races or charity events. I always said that I would do anything I could to help. I guess this is me keeping true to my word.

"Jane was so genuine and fun loving. I'm sure she had her down days, but she never once seemed bitter about the cards she had been dealt. Positive was her middle name and she always had a smile on her face."

To date, the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, headed now by her husband Mike, has raised more than 3m, but its influence has stretched far beyond fund-raising. Refusing to give into the disease which slowly spread throughout her body, Jane gave hope to sufferers across the world.

For Radcliffe, whose mother, Pat, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, those lessons of determination and absolute tenacity have taken on even greater resonance.

"I think setting targets helped Jane deal with whatever else was happening in her life," she says. "The challenges gave her a reason to keep going. I think we all forget how much pain she must have been in. When she decided to cycle across America, the cancer had spread to her bones. Every step must have been agony, yet she put her head down and got on with it.

"I know what it is like trying to run a marathon when you're fit, trying to do what Jane did almost seems incomprehensible. But for all her achievements, it was her honesty which I admired most.

"One of the things mum found most difficult was how few people want to talk about the disease. She understood that they wanted to take her mind off what was happening and didn't want to upset her, but actually she wanted to talk about the treatment she'd had.

"That was one of the things Jane was always very open about. She also showed that when it comes to cancer it is possible to defy doctors' predictions.

"Mum is doing well. She's been through chemotherapy and completed a course of Herceptin. Hopefully now she's coming out the other side. She's been clear of the disease for about a year and hopefully the corner has been turned."

Family life has always been important to Radcliffe. As a young child, she ran alongside her father as he trained for marathons and at the age of nine she joined Bedford Athletics Club, where her mother, a keen fun-runner, was in charge of the cross-country section.

Her talent was not immediately obvious. In her first race she finished 299th. However, a year later she was placed fourth in the same race and the club's coaches suspected they had found a very special athlete. They were right.

Radcliffe embarked on a rigorous training schedule and in 2002 the years of pounding the pavements paid off.

In the space of 12 months, she broke pretty much every record going, becoming the European 10,000m champion, winning

the 5,000m at the

Commonwealth Games and taking the ultimate long distance jewel – first place in the London Marathon. It seemed like she could do no wrong, but athletics can be cruel and just two years later she was crying by the roadside in a scorching hot Athens, her Olympic dreams in tatters.

While she remained the pre-race favourite, a leg injury just a fortnight before the Games forced her to take a high dose of anti-inflammatory drugs, that affected her ability to absorb food. Weak from lack of nourishment, she pulled out at the 23-mile mark and at the press conference the following day, in which she talked of feeling "numb", it was obvious how much she had suffered.

The Beijing Games should have been her chance for revenge, but again injury struck and she eventually crossed the finishing line in 23rd place.

"My way of dealing with disappointment and upset is to go out and run – it's how I cope with all my problems," she says. "Besides I've been in a lot of races in my career and there are still more good memories than bad ones."

While Radcliffe's immediate focus is on becoming a mother again, her long term goal remains London 2012. She'll be 38 by the time of the opening ceremony and, she hopes, at the peak of fitness. With time enough for a gentle build-up to the Games, Radcliffe has also had an operation on the bunion which has troubled her for years and which doctors believe might have been at the root of her other injuries. There may still be two years to go, but confidence in camp Radcliffe is high.

"I can't wait," she says. "All of Team GB will carry with them massive public expectation, but if you're healthy and running well then a home crowd is a massive advantage. I always think back to that Commonwealth Games in Manchester – the atmosphere was just incredible.

"In sport there are always things you can't legislate for. Look at the England goalkeeper Rob Green, but to be honest the real pressure to perform well comes from the athletes themselves.

"After two Olympics when things haven't gone my way, it really should be third time lucky."

Retiring from athletics after winning gold at the first Games on British soil for more than 60 years sounds like the kind of fairytale ending Radcliffe deserves, but she knows more than most how sport has the habit of upsetting the best laid plans.

"I don't think you should think too far ahead," she says. "Running races will never be a chore, but I've always said the day I stop enjoying the training that is when I'll give up. Even now I have no specific plans to hang up my running shoes after 2012. As long as I can, I'll just keep going."

It's the kind of motto Jane Tomlinson would have approved of .

This year 11,000 people are expected to join the Leeds 10k on Sunday, July 4. To run, walk, wheel or jog, enter online at www.runforall.com.

For more information on the Jane Tomlinson Appeal visit www.janesappeal.com