Goodman was born Heather Meakin in Birkenhead, Cheshire on 30 March 1935. She competed nationally as a canoeist during the 1950s and 1960s. She married fellow canoeist Bill Goodman of Manchester Canoe Club. The couple settled together in Warwickshire. Goodman was British Canoe Champion ten times. She finished third at the 1970 World Championships in East Germany, and was selected for the British team for the 1972 Munich Olympics. She subsequently retired from competition.[3] After moving to Kendal, she took up fell running in 1995, and only ten years later, aged 70, won the female over-65 gold medal at the fifth World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Keswick, Cumbria.[1]
She died on 23 September 2022 in Kendal at the age of 87.[4]