Jane Tomlinson

JANE TOMLINSON - AN INSPIRATION

Unless we have had the experience none of us can imagine what it would be like to hear a doctor tell you that you had, at best, one year to live.

Think about it for a moment.

I suppose that individual reaction would vary according to individual situation. Those with children, I am sure, as well as their own feelings of despair would feel a keen sense of their children being cheated of their parent, and no doubt, an overwhelming concern for their sons and daughters future without them. And perhaps this was the sequence of thoughts of Jane Tomlinson, a British woman diagnosed with breast cancer who in 2000 was told that her disease had entered a terminal stage. But far from crumbling, or retreating to her home with her loved ones around her, what this wife and mother did next was truly remarkable.

Jane Emily Goward was born in Yorkshire, in the North of England in 1964, the sixth of 10 children. Her father was a dentist and when she was 11 he took the whole family to Australia but the new life did not suit them and they returned to the UK just three years later. Jane was a good student and in 1990 she applied to study mathematics at the University of Leeds, in the North of England. It was that year that she found a lump in her breast and had to have a lumpectomy. This marked a turning point for Jane who abandoned her plans to study mathematics and enrolled instead on a radiographer course at Leeds General Infirmary. She had met and married Mike Tomlinson by this time and had two daughters, Suzanne and Rebbecca. The couple added a son to their family later, called Steven. Following her qualification in 1993 Jane decided to go on with her studies to postgraduate level and became a specialist paediatric radiographer. Then came the hammer blow. Three years later the cancer returned and she had to have a mastectomy with 2 rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Despite her treatment however in 2000 Jane was told that her cancer had spread to her bones and lungs and that she had at best 12 months to live.
With a strength and resilience that is hard to comprehend Jane decided to embark on a series of marathons and athletic challenges to raise money for charity. She devised a training regime and in May 2001 took part in her first challenge, the 5km Race for Life. This race was conceived specifically to heighten awareness of women's cancers. The first Race for Life event took place in 1994 when 680 participants participated in a race in London and raised £36,000. Race for Life has subsequently grown to become one of the UK's largest fundraising events, which in 2006 involved 240 races and 750,000 participants and raised £46 million. Since its inception, Race for Life has raised over £100 million for the charity.
In December 2001, Jane took part in the Leeds Abbey Dash followed in April 2002, by the London Marathon and later the New York Marathon. In July that year, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Queen of England’s accession to the throne Jane presented the Jubilee Baton to The Queen in Leeds, and in August undertook the London Triathlon followed in October the Great North Run.
Jane completed the Ironman Triathlon, the only person with incurable cancer ever to do so. She also completed two half Ironmans. In 2002 at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, and was awarded an MBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - a British order of chivalry) in 2003. Also in 2003, from March to April, Jane cycled with her brother Luke Goward from John o' Groats at the Northern most tip of Scotland to Land's End, the South Western farthest point of England a distance of 1060 miles. The following year Jane and Luke on a tandem bicycle set out to cycle 2000 miles across Europe from Rome to Leeds, and not content with that herculean feat, stopped to climb Mont Ventoux on the way!

In July and August 2006, in her final challenge Jane spent nine weeks cycling 4200 miles across the United States, raising £250,000.
She had published her first book, The Luxury of Time in 2005, and released the second volume of her memoirs You Can't Take It With You in 2006.

In January 2007, Jane and her husband Mike launched Jane Tomlinson's Run For All, a 10km charity run that took place in June that year.

But seven years after she had first been told she had 12 months to live, her treatment had taken its toll and she developed chronic heart disease. Having been elevated to a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in June 2007, her disease finally claimed her and Jane Tomlinson died. She was 43.
.
I know that all the facts and figures above can be a bit mind boggling, but read them again and as you read each individual event really think what it meant to be dying of cancer, often feeling rotten but still having the strength to push yourself further and further, determined that despite a life cut cruelly short, it would be a life remembered, a life that really made a difference. Imagine making the decision to carry on with your training and travel knowing that every moment you were away was a moment less you would have to be with your husband and children with not many more moments left on this earth, how hard would that decision be?

Unbelievably Jane attracted hate mail during her tireless efforts to make money for charity, people simply could not believe she was terminally ill. Indeed seeing her as often as we did on TV here in the UK, it was hard to believe, if anyone looked the picture of health and vigour Jane did. She said that some of the hate filled calls she received brought her to tears. One caller - in an expletive peppered rant - said: 'You are nothing but a fraud. You no more have cancer than I have.' Even some newspapers called her a fake. But there were many many supporters and admirers, Jane at one point was receiving 2500 letters a week. Nothing, not even the most vile abuse would stop Jane, she continued for as long as she had the strength, to raise money to help others. Her unselfish, unswerving determination is hard to understand. Knowing that you time is limited, how many of us would want to spend every waking moment with our loved ones, how many of us would be able to overcome the actual physical limitations of our illness to undertake really gruelling and difficult challenges that even some athletes might balk at? When I’m feeling as though I have a bit of flu coming on, or have a few aches and pains, I think of Jane, a truly remarkable and inspiring human being, and suddenly I feel a whole lot better!