While attending Llandrindod High School, Wade was encouraged by her PE teacher to join Brecon Athletic Club.

She first came to senior prominence in 1982, when she won the Commonwealth Games 800 metres title in Brisbane, representing Wales, winning in 2:01.31, just ahead of Scotland's Anne Clarkson (later Purvis), who ran 2:01.52.

At 800 metres, she improved her three-year-old PB of 2:00.56, to set a UK record of 1:57.42, breaking Christina Boxer's six-year-old mark of 1:59.05.

In 1986, now competing as Kirsty Wade and living in the north-east of England (she became a member of Blaydon Harriers Athletic Club), she became the first woman to achieve the 800m/1500m double at the Commonwealth Games, when she won in Edinburgh.

In June 1987, Wade scored one of her biggest career wins, when she won the European Cup 1500 metres in Prague, defeating future World and Olympic champion Tatyana Samolenko.

At the 1988 AAA Championships in Birmingham, incorporating the British Olympic trials, Wade won the 800 m and was third in the 1500 m, earning selection for both events.

Wade was nominated for her community sports development work on the Isle of Lewis, where she lives with her husband and their children.