Paula Radcliffe has offered countless athletes incredibly valuable advice over the years, with runners eager to pick the brain of one of Britain's greatest ever talents.

But her daughter, Isla, has revealed how she opted to ignore her mother's words of wisdom ahead of the London Marathon. 

This year Paula will be watching the event from the sidelines and despite all the medals and accolades she has won during her glittering career it is set to be the most emotional of her life.

That's because teenage daughter Isla is running her first ever marathon after overcoming a battle with a rare form of cancer.

Isla, 18, is taking part in the 26.2-mile race on Sunday to raise money to help families going through the heartache and trauma they experienced. 

Isla was diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer at the age of 13 in August 2020. 

She underwent weeks of gruelling chemotherapy at the worst possible time during the Covid pandemic - meaning that Paula was the only member of her family who was allowed to be at her side as she fought the disease.

Paula's father Peter, who had helped launch her on the road to success, died just weeks earlier aged 73 after falling sick while restrictions were in place.

And while Paula is incredibly proud to see her daughter hit the streets of London on Sunday morning, if it was up to her, Isla would not be running this year. 

'Last year I was here and I saw the atmosphere and it was a bit on a whim,' Isla told the BBC. 

'I wanted to just run it, to be a part of the atmosphere, and obviously also for the charity.

When asked what advice her mother has given, Isla replied honestly.

'She said do it next year!' the teenager said. 'She's like 'you need a year for your studies, maybe this is a bit too soon' but I wanted to be 18 and be the youngest, to be kind of like a child to do it.'

Isla also admitted she's slightly underprepared for the big race. 

'Not really. I'm lacking the training but it will be okay, hopefully,' she added.

Paula is adamant that Isla will put her best foot forward for the iconic race, and praised her mental fortitude. 

'The one thing that we know with Isla is when she sets her mind on doing something then she will 100 percent go at it,' she said. 

'Yes, she could have done more training, she could have been more prepared, but I'm extremely proud of her for taking on this challenge and seeing it through.

'It's actually Isla who pointed out to me that it's now 40 years since my dad ran it and I watched Ingrid Kristiansen set that world record and was inspired to run the marathon. It's 10 years since I retired, it's 20 years since I set the women's only world best in 2005, and now she's here completing three generations.'

Paula - who competed in four Olympic Games and won gold in the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 - told how her most gruelling marathon was dealing with Isla's diagnosis and its aftermath over a tormenting two-year period.

She said: 'I'll never forget the fear when someone tells you something is wrong with your baby. It is the scariest thing in the world.'

Paula told how she took Isla to the paediatrician after she experienced a number of symptoms including chronic stomach pain, loss of breath and bleeding.

She said this week: 'It then moved very quickly. On the Tuesday she visited the doctor, we had a scan on the Wednesday and one week later we were already in the hospital starting the first round of chemo.'

Describing how the experience was far more challenging than any Olympic competition, Paula has spoken of her feelings of 'panic and helplessness'.

She said: 'It's the hardest thing a parent can go through.

'You can support them and be with them the whole way through, but you can't do that chemo for them.

'It's horrible to watch your child suffering through that, but at the same time we believed that if it felt bad, it was killing the cancer.'

She added: 'There are things you're not ready for - either going through it or as a parent.'

Isla's cancer is said to affect just one in 200,000 women.

Paula said: 'You have it from birth and then when you hit puberty it starts to reproduce.'

Isla discussed her cancer diagnosis in an interview with The Times four years ago.

She told how she was initially relieved to identify what was wrong with her: I thought if we can solve this then I won't have those problems - having mood swings and being tired all the time were not normal but it meant I could make sense of them.

'I didn't want to be told they didn't know what it was or that it was normal because I didn't want to carry on with the same pain and tiredness.'

Describing her treatment, Isla went on: 'I cried the most when I lost my hair

'The chemo does not affect you much on the outside but losing my hair was a big thing.'

To help her cope, her brother Raphael would allow his sister to blow-dry his hair to compensate for not being able to style her own.

Isla said she was grateful for the attention her mother gave her: 'Just dealing with me, just taking time and making me the priority…And my brother didn't get as much time as he normally does or my grandma.

'She was always there for me even if I snapped at her, she would not leave.'