Less than four months earlier, the South Surrey resident had undergone brain surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital to remove two brain tumours.
On April 21, 2025, she crossed the finish line in Boston feeling something far more meaningful than a slower time.
“I was just so grateful that I could actually be there at that point,” Ferrie says.
An experienced marathon runner who has completed 11 full marathons over the past 15 years, running has always been deeply connected to Ferrie’s identity, friendships and sense of well-being. The thought of losing that part of her life became one of the most difficult aspects of her diagnosis.
“When I got the metastatic diagnosis, that was the one thing I thought,” she says. “It’s such a huge part of who I am and what I like to do.”
Her journey to the Boston Marathon began with an earlier breast cancer diagnosis in 2022. After treatment and surgery, Ferrie believed she was recovering well. Then, she began experiencing severe headaches unlike anything she had experienced before.
“I thought I knew what a headache was,” she recalls. “This was like next level. You feel nauseous, you just can’t move. Any movement just triggers intense pain.”
The headaches became more frequent and more severe over a short two-week period. One day, after a run and coffee with a friend, she noticed the street felt tilted beneath her feet. Soon after, her husband encouraged her to go to her local hospital.
A CT scan quickly revealed two tumours on her brain.
Within days, Ferrie was transferred to Royal Columbian Hospital, home to one of British Columbia’s leading neurosciences programs and a specialized centre for complex neurosurgical care.
Despite the timing — just after Christmas — everything moved remarkably quickly.
Ferrie arrived at the hospital on December 29, 2024. By January 3, 2025, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Craig was performing surgery to remove the tumours.
“When we’re involved with a patient that has metastatic cancer, this may sometimes involve tumours that go to the brain and depending on the location and the degree of symptoms, it can be an emergency,” says Dr. Craig. “There is usually a fairly large team that can be coordinated quickly when needed.”
That coordination brought together specialized neurosurgical teams, MRI technologists, anesthesiologists, operating room nurses and advanced surgical imaging technologies to support the procedure.
“One of the main things that (Royal Columbian Hospital) Foundation has supported us with recently is navigation software that allows us to combine our anatomic knowledge with a real-time view of the patient’s MRI or CT scan,” Dr. Craig explains. “This can help add an additional safety margin for the patient.”
Ferrie remembers feeling reassured from her very first conversations with Dr. Craig.
“He just put me so much at ease because he seemed so confident and so relaxed,” she says. “I just felt so grateful. It’s hard to explain.”
What also stood out to her was the compassion she experienced throughout her care.
“Everyone’s super busy, but they know what they’re doing and they’re doing it with such kindness,” Ferrie says. “I never felt scared. I just felt very much in great hands.”
The surgery itself went smoothly. Ferrie was awake shortly afterward and returned home the following day.
Soon after, Ferrie began chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments closer to home. But even while undergoing treatment, she remained determined to continue training for the Boston Marathon — a race she had originally qualified for before learning about the tumours.
For Ferrie, the marathon became both motivation and a celebration of what remained possible.
“I wholeheartedly believe that physical activity heals your body,” she said. “It just puts your body in the condition that it needs to be in to accept all the other healing.”
Dr. Craig was impressed when he later learned Ferrie had completed the race.
“That was quite shocking to me,” he says. “While we give our best for every patient, some stories give our team an extra boost to carry forward by highlighting the impact we can have, and that’s certainly been the case with Jill.”
Jill Ferrie celebrates after completing the 2025 Boston Marathon, sharing a joyful post-race moment with a friend following her remarkable return to running just months after brain surgery.