My lifelong friend, Liz Kirwan, who has died aged 34 after a cardiac arrest, was an exceptional athlete who ran every day. She was an important member and former vice-captain of the Cardiff running club Les Croupiers, regularly doing 5km in less than 20 minutes, and also completing each of the Berlin and Snowdon marathons in just over three and a half hours. In addition, she was a committed personal trainer with a passion for encouraging women to take up sport, helping many beginners to start running.
The only child of Julian Ashton, a paper mill technician, and Sian (nee Williams), a teacher, she was born and brought up in Bridgend, South Wales. On leaving Bryntirion comprehensive school, she studied English literature and Welsh at Cardiff University.
Always an excellent writer and communicator, Liz moved to Leicester in 2003 to study for a postgraduate qualification in journalism. There she met the sports reporter Chris Kirwan, whom she married in Cardiff in 2011. She had a successful eight years in journalism and PR, and then fulfilled a lifelong aim to teach, qualifying as a secondary teacher of English and Welsh in 2012.
In December 2013, Liz’s first child, Thomas Rhys Kirwan, was born unresponsive at University Hospital of Wales Cardiff after an uneventful pregnancy. After weeks of waiting for genetic results, Liz and Chris were told that Thomas had a severe form of myotubular myetosis. He died in February last year. Despite her grief, Liz was hoping to write a book to help others.
Her experience spurred her on to plough her considerable energy into raising awareness and money for both the unit that cared for Thomas and for Tŷ Hafan children’s hospice. Running continued to provide solace for Liz over the last year, and she had just started to compete again.
Known affectionately by her schoolfriends as Betty, she had a huge appetite for life, was fiercely loyal and had a brilliant sense of humour. She was a great fan of 1990s music and the last thing that she sent me was a present for my new baby: not a toy but a CD of a favourite album, Definitely Maybe by Oasis, with the message: “No self-respecting teenage boy should be without this.”
Liz is survived by Chris and her parents.
