Anaïs Quemener admits that when she learned that she had breast cancer in August 2015, she was “completely in denial”. So much so that for her first medical consultation, this caregiver, then only 24 years old, asked Doctor Jean Denarnaud for more time to begin her treatment, so that she could participate in the French marathon championship on October 25 in Rennes. . “Yes, you can very well wait until November, you will make a very beautiful champion of France, but in a coffin,” the oncologist and radiotherapist from Blanc-Mesnil replied, as he recounts in Anaïs.
This poignant documentary initiated by Salomon, who has sponsored the athlete for a year, will be visible on YouTube from next Tuesday. The beautiful story par excellence, in the middle of Pink October, of the remission of an extremely endearing athlete. Director Hélène Hadjiyianni, who followed Anaïs Quemener for three months at the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis) where she works exclusively at night, but also in the footsteps of her family roots in Reunion, sums up this sacred character of 1.51m thus: “Anaïs is fire and movement. Just after the last Paris Marathon, she ran 10 km the same day, just like that, for pleasure. She is a fascinating and inspiring woman.”
“When I went running, I felt like I wasn’t sick”
Because yes, Anaïs Quemener runs harder, to the point of becoming a double French marathon champion since her illness, with an incredible first coronation… in September 2016! “A year earlier, it was a big blow for me to learn that I would not participate in the 2015 edition,” confides the person concerned. But in my head, it wasn’t the end. It was clear to me that I would be there in 2016.” And this at the cost of a fight against cancer alongside his father Jean-Yves, his lifelong coach.
We didn’t really know how the disease would progress, how I would react to the treatments, explains Anaïs Quemener. But all I knew was that stopping running wasn’t an option for me. No matter the pace, the distance, whether it was 2 or 4 km, I needed to run. Sometimes I could only walk but I still went out. Because when I went running, I felt like everyone else, I felt like I wasn’t sick. This is what held me back to life. Why should someone with cancer absolutely rest on their couch all the time? It is proven that sport helps limit the risk of recurrence, and the benefits of the practice are obvious on the mental level. »
Former French military cross-country champion, Jean-Yves Quemener remembers being torn when following his daughter in her desire for sport throughout her illness. ” The law “sport on prescription” [apparue en 2017] did not yet exist, and even if I obviously adapted my sporting practice to Anaïs’ form, I was looked at askance,” he admits. Notably when he accompanied Anaïs in August 2015 on a race in the Somme, where she had planned to take part in the 18 km, well before knowing about her cancer. “Anaïs had just had her first chemo,” remembers Jean-Yves Quemener. Fortunately I had modified her distance to put her on the 10 km… On the one hand I should not have let her participate in this race, but as she had registered before the illness, I could not symbolically not prevent him from participating that day. » If Anaïs had still won this women’s 10 km, “she had lost her smile during this period of illness”.
“I sometimes run 150 km in a week when I work 50 hours at the hospital”
A smile that she found again, brighter than ever, on September 18, 2016, after becoming French champion, supporting personal record (2h55′ compared to 2h59′ before her cancer), six months after the end of her treatments chemo and radiotherapy, and surgery. “I wanted revenge on life, it was as if I had drawn a line under the past,” describes Anaïs Quemener. You should know that I was not starting from scratch just as I had never stopped running throughout my illness. And then for six months, I couldn’t work in the hospital because I didn’t have any immune defenses. But since I no longer had treatment, I was able to train a lot and return to my pre-illness level. In my misfortune, it was the only period of my life where I was able to train, rest, and live like a high-level athlete. »
Because in the process, she returned to her position as a night nursing assistant at the Jean-Verdier hospital, with her “balance of 5-6 hours of sleep per day”. Her full-time job is split between 50-hour and 20-hour weeks, with a usual sleep window of 9 to 2 p.m., after rushing home from work at dawn. “There is obviously a significant physical and mental load,” she concedes. I don’t have the same daily life as other athletes, it’s complicated to keep going but it remains a work of passion. The advantage of sport and illness is that I know my body well and I listen to it. I still run 150 km in a week when I work 50 hours at the hospital. »
She is only two minutes away from the Olympic minimums
A frantic pace which does not prevent it from gaining momentum on the international scene, with the support of the atypical Meute Running in Vitry-Mory (Seine-et-Marne), “more a family than a club”, which she created with her father and some friends in 2020, and where she is vice-president. The former holder of the French 10 km cadet record improves her times all the time, between her second French champion title, in November 2022 in Deauville (2h40’37”), then the last Paris Marathon in April (2h32’12”). With running volumes of up to 210 km per week last month, Anaïs Quemener broke the screen like never before on September 24 during the Berlin Marathon. Her amazing time of 2h29’01” is the second best French performance of the year over this distance of 42.195 km, and even the seventh in the history of the French women’s marathon. Enough to consider being part of the adventure of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, right?
“This record time improved by three minutes changes my ambitions a little,” she admits. I am only two minutes away from the Olympic minimums (set at 2h26’50”), so yes, I am seriously thinking about the Paris Olympics, whereas I was more focused on those of 2028 until then. I’m a little waiting. » It is difficult to believe that after the World Athletics Championships without the slightest French marathon runner selected, due to lack of minimums reached, Paris 2024 will only present Mekdes Woldu (2h26’34”), the only French athlete to have reached these minimum… Anaïs Quemener is in any case thinking of committing to Valencia (Spain) on December 3 to try to meet these minimums, before waiting for a possible gesture from World Athletics, since three athletes from the same country can be selected by discipline.
“Running, a second life in parallel”
Finally, would this question be relevant if Anaïs Quemener could benefit from professional athlete status with the Ministry of Sports? “It’s obvious that compared to my full-time job, my life completely shifted between night shifts and my complicated diet at the hospital, there would be time to gain if I didn’t work, or even less. Of course, I would like to be able to concentrate solely on my sport, with more time to train and recovery phases. But my feet are on the ground: all this is not possible at the moment if I want to pay my rent. Running is not my job but a hobby, a second life in parallel. »
The one who hammers home the expression “Sport as therapy”, right down to the title of his Facebook page, is clearly not going to give up her passion under the pretext that she is not financially supported by French institutions (only by her sponsor Salomon). “During my fight against illness, I received a lot of messages of support,” says Anaïs Quemener. It did me a lot of good and today, I see that my journey is boosting a lot of people who are facing illnesses. I don’t run just for myself and so I have no right to complain about anything. » Not really the type of the house, according to Hélène Hadjiyianni: “She is an extremely strong woman, with a total love for her family and for running”. We wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being one of the great stories of the Paris Olympics.