What To Do With A Year To Live: The Jane Tomlinson Story · by Amanda Thomas

Jane Tomlinson, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, she was told it was in its’ terminal stage and she had 12 months at most.

Jane Emily Goward was born in Yorkshire, England 1964, the sixth of 10 children. Jane was a good student and in 1990 applied to study mathematics at the University of Leeds, in the Northern England. It was this 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 plan to study mathematics and instead enrolled into radiography at Leeds General Infirmary. It was Leeds where Jane met and married Mike Tomlinson, they eventually would welcome two daughters, Suzanne and Rebecca and a son Steven to the family.

Following her qualification in 1993 Jane decided to go on with her studies to postgraduate level and specialized in paediatric radiography. 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 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 people participated 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 raising over £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 by the London Marathon in 2002 and later the New York Marathon. In July 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.

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, Jane was given an MBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) and in 2003 received the British order of chivalry. The same year from March to April, Jane cycled with her brother Luke Goward from John o’ Groats at the Northern tip of Scotland to Land’s End, the South point of England, a distance of 1060 miles. The following year Jane and Luke set out on a tandem bicycle to cycle 2000 miles across Europe from Rome to Leeds.

In July and August 2006, Jane’s final challenge was spent 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 life. Jane Tomlinson was only 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 fruther, determined that despite a life cut cruelly short, it would be a life remembered, a life that really made a difference.

Unbeleiveably 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 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 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 and help others. Her unselfish, unswerving determination is hard to understand.

When presented with a limit on life, 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 and undertake 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!

www.janesappeal.com