Joburger Erin Lazarus, 27, had always been sporty, but “avoided cross country like it was the plague”. Her father was a serious long-distance runner, and the family often tagged along to support his races. But long-distance running was not something Erin felt agreeable towards – until the loss of her left leg renewed her sense of determination. Here’s how she became a Comrades Marathon finisher: by taking up running with a prosthetic blade.
“I avoided cross country like it was the plague”
Erin’s father was a dedicated marathon runner, and the family had a tradition growing up. “[My sister and I] would have a gymnastics competition, for example, and we’d get into the car straight after the competition, drive to Durban, and my dad would run Comrades the next day,” she reminisces. While she couldn’t stand the idea of running long distances, she found herself toying with the idea of one day clocking Comrades like her dad.
But in 2021, an illness would threaten her physical freedoms. It began as different symptoms, all seemingly unconnected: knee pains, brain fog, joint pain, hair loss. “I felt like I was living in a different body,” she recalls. Doctors diagnosed her with anxiety, but Erin had a gut feeling that it was wrong. “I knew at the time that there’s no way – I’m not an anxiety sufferer… But there was also a part of me that was trying so hard to convince myself it was anxiety.”
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“I didn’t feel like I was in my own body”
By the end of 2021, symptoms still undiagnosed, Erin was sitting out gym classes she’d previously been aceing. She’d also been having non-stop migraines. “The symptoms just kept getting worse and worse,” she recalls. One day, she’d dipped her legs in a pool – and her leg suddenly turned a frightful black, with blue blisters. “I didn’t feel like I was in my own body,” she recalls as she witnessed her leg become unrecognisable in front of her. The pain was excruciating.
Whisked to the ER, Erin finally received a diagnosis: lupus. “It was a sigh of relief – finally, I’ve got something. I’m not going crazy thinking my body is giving up on me.” But the sigh of relief came with a sobering reality: her doctors recommended she amputate the leg. They’d done everything they could to keep her limb alive, but the foot was dead.
Erin made a quick decision to let her leg go. “I would look at my foot and it wouldn’t feel like mine anymore,” she says. “In that moment, I was like, ‘Right, we’re amputating. This is going to be my new life. I’m going to get a running blade like those cool Paralympians on the TV.” After, in hospital recovering, Erin decided to finally make good on her long-time goal. She looked at her father and promised him that together, they’d take on a marathon.
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Running with a prosthetic blade
With her prosthetic blade, Erin learned to run; it was a lengthy, painful process. “I completely underestimated how hard running on a blade would be,” she says, recalling how there was pain in her leg and she struggled to control the blade. “At the beginning, I thought, ‘What have I got myself into?’” she reflects.
But she just kept going. Erin told herself that while running with the prosthetic blade was painful, and even 2km was a struggle to complete, she’d at least get coffee after. Through the running community, post-run coffees, and accompanied by her father, Erin created consistency. The whole family got involved: her father running beside her, her mom at every finish line, her sister and boyfriend tagging along to races. It was a 10km charity race that shifted Erin’s mindset properly from ‘This is painful but at least there’s coffee’ to ‘Suck it up, you’re doing it for someone else and for a bigger purpose.’
“Social media is a really cool place, but it’s also really dangerous”
That sense of purpose – that her race was not just to prove something to herself, but to help others – was the impetus for her pushing over further distances. “Up until then, I’d told everybody, ‘I’m doing a marathon’, but I didn’t feel worthy of calling myself a runner,” she explains. “I was running at eight and a half minutes a kilometre on a good day. I didn’t feel like I looked the part.”
Having found a sense of pride from completing that 10k run, Erin decided to set her sights on the Gun Run, a 21km race in Cape Town. Through this training, she fell in love with running. Before then, she’d been struggling with imposter syndrome – feeling like she wasn’t a true runner. “I think social media is a really cool place, but it’s also really dangerous,” she points out. “Everyone’s posting on Strava, and it’s like, girls with sports bras with six-packs, like two beautifully toned legs, completely shredded.” She’d also internalised other ideas: that a 5K run shouldn’t have segments of walking; that she wasn’t slim enough to run in just her sports bra.
Erin’s mental shift: From “I have to do this” to “I GET to do this”
Leading up to her half-marathon, however, her accomplishments created newfound confidence: she realised that she didn’t have to run, but she was able to. “I think in my mind I’m so used to just living with a prosthetic that I don’t feel different,” she says. “When I was going up to the 21, I was like, ‘I get to do this!’” she remembers.
“A few years ago, I was lying in a hospital bed, unable to walk 10 metres, and now I get to run 100 metres, 200 metres, whatever it is, and I’m doing more than most without a leg. So, just be proud of getting out there and doing it.” Now, Erin doesn’t run for kudos, or a medal, or for a hot Insta post. “It’s about being active; being healthy,” she says, “because you get to do that with people you love.”
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Running Tips From Erin
Find your motivation. For Erin, running with a prosthetic blade was far more challenging than she’d expected. Crossing the finish line of her first race took constant egging on – from herself and her community. “I fell in love with the running community and running with my dad, so I was okay to push through that little period of pain.”
Switch up your mindset. “[For] the 10K [race], funnily enough, I actually partnered up with a charity, and that was crazy for me because in that 10K I’m not thinking, ‘Erin’s in pain, Erin’s sore, Erin’s tired’. It was, ‘Suck it up – you’re doing it for someone else and for a bigger purpose’. And that was the best thing for me mentally. It’s crazy how just switching that mindset makes you push that further distance. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still hard, but that was really amazing.”
You set the tone. This is Erin’s motto in life, since receiving her carbon fibre blade. “I’m just so proud to look back,” she says. “The things that I said I would do, I finally did do. For so long, I was putting it off.”
This story, as told to Michelle October, was first published in the March/April 2026 issue of Women’s Health Magazine South Africa.
