South Africa’s Karen Muir Battling End Stage Breast Cancer

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 15. ACCORDING to Sport24 in South Africa, South African legend Karen Muir is battling “end stage” breast cancer at the age of 59, and has been told “she only has a few months to live.”

Muir, at the age of 12, became the youngest person to break a world record in 1965 with a 1:08.7 in the 110-yard backstroke at the ASA National Junior Championships in Blackpool, England. Throughout the rest of her career, which spanned five more years, she went on to break 15 world records in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 110 yard and 220 yard backstroke events.

Muir, however, never had the chance to become an Olympian due to South Africa's exclusion from the Olympic Games because of its discriminatory Apartheid rules. Muir was named to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980, and has worked as a doctor in both Africa and in Canada. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and it has since spread.

Full Sport24 article

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