The former British 200m champion talks for the first time about the kidney condition that forced her to call a halt to her athletics career.

Hannah Williams casts her mind back to the UK Indoor Championships of 2023 and the uncertain days that followed. Having placed third in the 200m in Birmingham, upon her return home she quickly fell ill. “I was so weak I couldn’t eat or drink,” she recalls. “I was just sick all the time and I struggled to get downstairs because of the pain.”

Given the severity of the issues, the 27-year-old immediately got herself checked out and, after tests, was told by doctors that her kidneys were damaged. Yet, after spending three days in hospital, she left without an official diagnosis.

“They were like: ‘The only possible reason for this is that you were severely dehydrated, but that just wasn't possible because I wasn’t’,” she adds.

Angered by the fact she still didn’t know what was causing her issues, Williams turned to UK Athletics and spoke to John Rogers – a sports and exercise medicine consultant for the national governing body.

After confirmation from a second doctor came the diagnosis – anaerobic exercise induced kidney failure, a condition so rare that it is currently not listed on the NHS website.

In short, Williams’ body struggles to break down lactic acid, meaning her levels of creatinine (the waste product from the breakdown of muscle tissue that is filtered from the blood by the kidneys) get too high, leading to kidney damage.

“The veins in my kidney essentially spasmed after competitions,” Williams says starkly. “If something like that continues and you don’t stop then you may even need a kidney transplant.

“The diagnosis was a relief because it’s quite hard to have something going on and there’s no explanation for it. I didn’t really feel sad in any type of way just because I’d already come to the realisation that I couldn’t keep on doing the 200m or 400m.”

Keen to carry on competing while mitigating the build-up of lactic acid, Williams decided to switch from the 200m – the event at which she became national champion five years ago – to the 100m for the rest of the 2023 season.

Such was her enthusiasm for the sport, she even trained for the triple jump for five months, eager to find a discipline that would allow her to compete without being sick. However, during the winter of 2023 Williams came to a very sudden realisation.

“I [had] completely checked out,” she says. “I was just going to training for the sake of it. I just didn't want to give it up. It was a very sad, depressive phase of my life because I knew deep down that I had already stopped and that I was going through the motions of it.

“For those months I was basically trying to figure out what I could do and in my mind it was like: ‘I don’t care what it is, I just want to do something’. So when I stopped I got really upset.” In March of 2024, Williams retired from athletics at the age of just 25, yet she only publicly revealed her health condition in September of this year.

“I actually went through a phase of thinking I wasn't a good enough athlete to even warrant a 'why I've stopped’ post,” Williams tells AW, in her first interview since the diagnosis. “I also kept putting it off as it kind of relived the whole moment.

“Then my boyfriend told me I should because it could be useful for other people and it could be good closure for myself. Half the reason I put the video out was because if anyone else was struggling with this, then they could see it’s not just them. It’s hard for anyone.”

Since Williams published the reel on Instagram, over 100,000 people have watched it. She has also been approached by, and exchanged messages with, a young woman in Canada who had the same condition.

Williams, who first started getting sickness symptoms back in 2019, still doesn’t know precisely why her body can’t process lactic acid. The sickness became more prevalent over time and, at first, she thought she had food poisoning. Unsurprisingly, support from her family has been crucial. Given she is the younger sister of Olympic, European and Commonwealth medallist Jodie Williams, her sibling’s understanding has been a big factor.

Both sisters excelled at junior level – Jodie became world under-18 100m and 200m champion while Hannah secured a European under-20 400m bronze medal – before progressing to the senior ranks.

For three consecutive years, the Williams sisters held the national 200m titles (Jodie 2019 and 2021 and Hannah in 2020). The opportunity to represent her country alongside her bigger sister was a lifelong ambition for Hannah and, even though she was still battling sickness, she placed fourth in the 400m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic trials and was selected for the relay for the Games.

“I was on the highest high ever in my whole entire life,” she says. “I was told by a coach at UK Athletics that I would definitely be running and on the second leg for either the mixed 4x400m or women’s 4x400m relay.

“I was like: ‘Well, this is incredible’. I didn't ever have any doubt that I wouldn't run. We travelled out there and I shared a room with Jodie.”

However, Hannah was ultimately never called into action in Tokyo. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says of the moment she found out and burst into tears on the spot. “There was a Diamond League race in Gateshead between the trials and the Olympics and I didn’t run that well because my kidney flared up again. I think that’s what they based the decision on.

“I was embarrassed because everyone back home, including all my friends and my family, were watching the Olympics. I was so disappointed I never ran. I still feel angry because that opportunity was taken.

“Jodie was more upset than me and went up to the coach to say ‘what!?’ I was aggressively crying so she was really a big sister for me in that moment. Three years later, when she got the Olympic 4x400m bronze medal in Paris, she was like: ‘This is for you’.”

Those moments all now seem a long time ago for Williams, who states that after retiring from athletics she lost all joy with any exercise or training. In the last two to three months, however, that love for movement has returned. She has taken part in a couple of 10km races and is testing her limits to see how longer but less intense distances affect her kidneys. She is not ruling out the prospect of a half-marathon at some point, either.

Modelling is her main passion now, though, with over 75 flights completed for shoots and meetings so far in 2025. It’s a different kind of graft and competitiveness but one that Williams is embracing. She is keen to move on from her time in athletics but emphasises its importance for her growth as a person, as well as an athlete. As she moves on to the next stage of her life and, having had to step away from elite sport at such a young age, Williams now takes a philosophical approach to life.

“It was like an incredible chapter in a book but it had a sad ending,” she says. “I actually try and remove the diagnosis part from it because I was very happy with what I achieved, anyway.

“Obviously, to top off my achievements, I would have liked to actually race at the Olympics. But I ticked off everything I wanted to do except that. I had the goal of being at a World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games. And I did just that.

“My philosophy is: ‘Yes, I could have done this and ‘my career was cut a bit short’ but I was always going to stop at some point. I probably only had another five to eight years left in athletics and I still had roughly short of a decade in the sport.

“So I would just say, as cheesy as it sounds, really try and focus on what you have achieved and how amazing it is. So often we think a diagnosis like that can be the end of the world or your life. Be excited about life and just trust yourself. I’m not in athletics now but I’m still doing things which give me a purpose and make me feel really good. I feel like if you can look at the bigger picture then you can bloom and achieve anything you want.”