Christine Smith will be there in spirit with the women and girls taking part in this year's event.
She had hoped to take part, but her battle against a third bout of cancer has taken its toll on her health.
The 64-year-old has also lost one of her brothers and one of her sisters to the disease.
Christine, from Hinckley, said: "I have always supported Cancer Research UK and the Race for Life.
"I know first-hand just how important it is to raise money for research into cancer."
She was first diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in 1993.
Christine said: "Food kept getting stuck and my doctor just kept giving me Gaviscon.
"It was only when I changed GPs that the cancer was discovered and I had to have a big operation at Leicester General hospital to have it removed.
"I didn't have to have further treatment such as chemo or radiotherapy."
In 2009, and just seven weeks after her husband died, Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had to have a mastectomy followed by both radio and chemotherapy.
Christine said: "It was about the same time that I lost both my sister, who was 63, to cancer and my brother, who was 68, to prostate cancer, which had spread to his bones.
"It was then that we were offered genetic testing and it was discovered that between myself, my three brothers and three sisters, four of us had the Brca gene, which makes hereditary cancer more likely."
Christine decided to have her other breast removed to try to reduce the risk of cancer.
However, just a few days before she was due to have surgery, she was told the oesophageal cancer had returned.
That was in 2011, and she has recently finished a course of treatment.
Christine said: "The diagnosis was such a shock. I couldn't have more surgery. But the treatment I have had has left me with collapsed vertebrae.
"It means I can't go ahead with the planned mastectomy, I just couldn't go through more major surgery at the moment.
"I would like to have done the Race for Life this year – I have done it twice before – but, unfortunately, I just do not feel able to do it at the moment."
But Christine will be willing on the women taking part in Victoria Park on Sunday and at the Race for Life event in Loughborough next month.
She said: "I know just how important it is to raise money for a charity like Cancer Research UK."
