Terminal Brain Cancer Sufferer Iram Leon Wins Marathon - While Pushing Daughter

An American dad with terminal brain cancer has won a marathon after pushing his small daughter in a buggy the whole way round.

Iram Leon, 32, likes to say he came second in the race named the Gusher Marathon in Texas - behind four-year-old Kiana whom he pushed around the route.

Leon started jogging months after doctors told him they could not cure cancer in his brain. He was found to have grade 2 diffuse astrocytoma

The gloomy bill of health hit his life in various ways, including ruling out driving and working.

So he took up running and quickly reached a good enough standard to enter races, including a handful of half marathons and 10km runs. In each race, Kiana had a front row seat in her pushchair.

But when Leon bid to enter the Gusher Marathon, he was turned down by organisers on two occasions because of a ban on pushchairs. Eventually, officials relented when his commitment shone through.

Leon vindicated the organisers' decision by winning the race in a time of 3hr 07min 35s.

Leon wrote in his blog. : "Simply put, it was also something I would have never imagined doing, running a marathon with a stroller. And so we kept running.

"I still can't believe that I won a marathon. Well, I came in second behind Kiana.

"Turns out that maybe brain cancer, which has come with some nightmare scenarios, also has had some that are better than I could have ever dreamed.

"But at the Gusher marathon, against the wind and up-hill, with my princess and inspiration a step ahead of me, I ran on a highway even if I'm not allowed to drive on it. I may never get to live down having put off that surgery for that marathon, I dare to dream that I lived up to it.

"At the awards ceremony, I immediately placed it on her neck and like every other race she's been part of that medal hangs in her room."

Leon has been given a life expentancy of up to 10 more years. He told Huffington Post: "The one thing I'm not going to say on my death bed, is, 'I wish I spent more time with my kid.'"