At 12, Scarff was a competitive gymnast but one day everything changed. She was sprinting towards the vault at practice and heard something pop, followed by a tremendous amount of pain. Her coach came running and called her parents to take her to the hospital.

“He actually had to carry me out of the gym. I was in so much pain,” Scarff recalls.

But because the pain was coming from her thigh, the doctor at the hospital didn’t think she’d broken anything and was going to send her away without an X-ray. Her mom knew her pain tolerance and pushed for that X-ray. It not only showed a broken femur but also a shadow.

That led to the diagnosis no family wants to hear—cancer—specifically osteosarcoma, the rare bone cancer Terry Fox was also diagnosed with three decades before.

The treatment was aggressive and she underwent 60 rounds of chemotherapy during the course of a year and, like Fox, had to have her right leg amputated. “Chemo is really tough, it makes you feel completely awful,” she says. “My mom would always bring a blanket from home to comfort me.”

When the time came to amputate her leg, Scarff remembers being resigned to the decision. “When I was going through my cancer treatment, I accepted it, I wasn’t happy about it but I took it in stride.”

Her battle prompted family friend, Sue Strong, to start Erica’s Wish as a way to support her and her family. The initiative’s blanket program continues to bring warmth, comfort and hope to children facing the biggest battles of their lives. Initially, Strong delivered blankets in Toronto to the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), where Scarff was treated, but now sends them across Ontario.

Scarff has gone on some of those deliveries. “It can be hard to go back to SickKids but there’s also a lot of positive things that happened there.”

“I instantly fell in love with the sport. I really enjoyed being in the boat and leaving my prosthetic on the dock.”

Without her treatment, Scarff wouldn’t be on the course she is now, and for that, she’s thankful.

Once in remission, it was a chance encounter that led her to compete on the world stage. “The thing I was really missing was that sport and competitive aspect,” Scarff says. While her parents tried to help her find something to fill the void left by gymnastics—swimming, biking, downhill skiing—she didn’t love anything.

One day she was at the prosthesis clinic when she ran into a friend who happened to be there with coach Mari Ellery. Ellery suggested she try Para canoe. “I instantly fell in love with the sport. I really enjoyed being in the boat and leaving my prosthetic on the dock.”

Now in her late teens, she used that first summer to ease into the sport, competing in a few races. But that fire was reignited and, with Ellery as her coach, she quickly started pushing herself harder.

It was around that time it was announced Para canoe would debut at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. “Once I saw I had the potential, I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Scarff recalls. “I started training even harder to see what could happen.”

She made her Paralympic debut alongside the sport she’d fallen in love with. “It was really cool to see so many other disabled athletes from around the world. It was a really positive experience.” A seventh place finish spurred her passion and she set her sights on Tokyo 2020.

But Scarff was dealt another devastating blow. She was crossing the street in 2018 when she was struck by a car. “It was pretty terrible but when I look at it in the grand scheme, I’m quite lucky it wasn’t worse,” Scarff says.

The recovery derailed her training and her life. In her early twenties at that time, she had recently moved out on her own and was attending school. Instead, she was forced to move back home and couldn’t wear her prosthesis. “It took me a really long time to recover.”

When she was finally able to get back in a boat, Scarff says it felt like she was starting over.

Despite clawing her way back, she narrowly missed qualifying for Tokyo. Still, she continued on and then it was announced Para canoe events would be expanding for Paris 2024.

There are two main boats in Para canoe: kayaks (propelled by a double-blade paddle) and va’a boats (an outrigger canoe propelled by a single-blade paddle). Up until this point, Scarff had been competing in kayaks. “I decided to switch events and see if I could qualify.” That came with another set of hurdles as she learned the ins and outs of a different event.

The move provided some of her biggest career highlights, seeing a gold medal finish at the 2022 World Cup, a silver medal at the 2023 World Championships and a fifth place finish in Paris.

The 2024 Paralympics were a redeeming moment for her, she says. Not only did she get to compete in Paris, but it felt like her hard work had paid off after missing Tokyo.

Another notable moment came for her this summer at the 2025 World Championships in Milan—the same city she competed at her first worlds in 10 years ago. This time her parents were able to accompany her and watch her eighth place finish live.

“I’ve been in the sport so long, it’s really cool to see things come full circle like that.” 

Photography: CKC/Vera Bucsu

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Read This Story in Our 2025 Fall Fitness Issue

IMPACT Magazine’s Fall Fitness Issue 2025 featuring the The Fitness Guy, Pete Estabrooks, telling all with his shockingly candid new memoir revealing a story you never expected, as well as former pro soccer player Simon Keith and Paralympian Erica Scarff. Find your ultimate guide to cross-training for runners, no jump cardio and superset workouts along with the best trail running shoes in our 2025 Trail Running Shoe Review, and so much more!

It was a punishing race for the mother, but despite the sleepless and nausea-ridden race, Case knew there was only one thing that mattered.

“I didn’t want to show up on the finish line destroyed,” she says. “Pepper comes first.”

A few months before Hardrock 100, in May of 2025, Case made headlines when photos of her breastfeeding a then-six-month-old Pepper during the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia race in Wales went viral.

Case had to get special permission from race organizers to add an extra stop to the course so she could feed Pepper for a third time during the 100-mile race. Despite the extra stop, she still managed to place first among the women.

The Ultra-Trail Snowdonia was Case’s first ultramarathon postpartum and her first in nearly three years. After suffering a miscarriage in 2022 and taking a hiatus from running due to fertility struggles, Case said it was just as important for Pepper as it was for her to get back into running.

“Mentally, it was the best thing to do,” she says. “Every time I went out, I connected with my old self that hadn’t changed.”

While running felt physically trying after giving birth, Case says that realizing she was still a runner helped her process all of the changes that come with becoming a mother.

Snowdonia was an extension of that, and making sure Pepper was fed during the race was just a piece of the logistical puzzle she had to work out. While some applauded the new mother for her dedication and determination, others felt it was selfish and performative.

“It speaks to the patriarchal, outdated ideas of what a new mom should look like,” she notes. “I’ve really worked to respond to those comments … A happy mom is really important for baby.”

While Snowdonia was a confidence boost, Hardrock was a reality check. Back at work as a UN human rights lawyer, Case was balancing long hours with the demands of training, all while caring for Pepper.

“It was a reminder for me of how much moms go through,” she says, “but what is possible to do with support.”

The Hardrock 100 is an unforgiving physical test, pushing participants through 100 miles (160 kilometres) and a total elevation change of 20,237 metres. For Case, it carried an emotional weight too—it was the same course where, shortly after racing it in 2022, she first learned that she was pregnant. She was there to close a loop.

Yet, 30 miles in, she was throwing up.

It was a reminder for me of how much moms go through, but what is possible to do with support.

“It was really tough to push through that,” she says.

This race was supposed to be a marker of all that the 43-year-old had achieved since 2022. Instead, she was in survival mode, running on four hours of sleep, caring for Pepper and battling the urge to quit.

“I had to remind myself why I was there,” she says.

“I just wanted to show Pepper I could do hard things.” Pulling back, she was able to get to a place where she could enjoy the last half of the race. Finishing fifth—and taking Pepper into her arms to cross the finish line with a bounce in her step—Case had stayed on pace with the top runners for the final leg and even beat her 2022 time by an hour.

While Case is determined to set an example for Pepper, she’s also helping girls and young women around the world. At the beginning of her ultramarathon career in 2014, while working in Afghanistan, Case was told she’d probably have to give up running while living and working in conflict zones.

“That was like waving a red flag in front of a bull,” she says.

Determined to use running to make a difference, she raised approximately $10,000 for a women’s shelter. But through that work, she learned the Afghan women really just wanted to be able to get outside themselves—something they couldn’t do because of the war and the type of abuse they had experienced. In the process of making that happen, Case founded Free to Run.

Operating in some of the world’s most challenging regions—including Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine—Free to Run has helped create positive change in the lives of thousands of young women and girls by using running and rights-based programs to support leadership, agency and health.

Making women seen has been a pillar in those programs.

As Case puts it, “That can absolutely change this idea of what women should be doing.”

Case’s story has also been captured on film. Her first documentary highlighted the work of Free to Run, while her upcoming second film will follow her running journey, pregnancy challenges and her early days of motherhood. Three years of filming wrapped up at Hardrock, closing another loop for her.

The film will premiere at the August UTMB event, and Case hopes to see it on a streaming platform this fall after a film festival circuit.
For Case, challenging cultural norms and stigmas isn’t just part of her work and charity, it’s integral to her approach as an ultrarunner and mother. She’s proving what is possible when women are seen, supported and empowered.  

Photography: Carrie Highman

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IMPACT Magazine Summer Outdoor Travel Issue 2025 featuring Shanda Hill, a Canadian Ultra Triathlete who is redefining the sport. Run on some epic trails in our own backyard or join a run club. Eat your way for Mental Clarity, fueling while travelling, seasonal eating and some kitchen must haves. Become strong and fit in only 20 minutes a day, and enjoy some tasty drinks guilt free and so much more.