yorkshirelad
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TERMINAL cancer sufferer Jane Tomlinson has died after a seven-year battle with the disease, a family spokesman said today.
Mrs Tomlinson, 43, from Leeds, who raised £1.75 million for charity, died at St Gemma’s Hospice, Leeds, at 9pm yesterday.
She was diagnosed with terminal cancer seven years ago but defied her illness - and often doctors’ orders - to dedicate her life to raising money for charity.
She refused to believe her diagnosis of terminal cancer meant an end to her active and fruitful life.
She took on challenge after challenge, even after retiring from charity work, the mother of three found strength in running and cycling as she continued to defy doctors’ beliefs that she had just six months to live in the summer of 2000.
Through a series of gruelling feats of endurance, which saw her become the first person in the world to run a marathon on chemotherapy, she raised more than £1.5 million for a series of charities close to her heart.
Courageous, bloody-minded and boldly honest, it was the unfailing support of her three children and 45-year-old husband, Mike, that helped keep her alive.
With a string of high-profile awards to her name, she admitted feeling
“constantly surprised” that she had lived so long, but said she had an
“unfinished job to do as a mum” to Suzanne, 21, Rebecca, 19, and 10-year-old Steven.
Her last big challenge was a 6781.8km ride across America - a far cry from her first race which was a 5km Race For Life in May 2001.
Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on February 21, 1964, she married Mike in the mid-80s and together they built a home for themselves in Rothwell, Leeds, living the life of any normal Yorkshire family.
But in July 1990 Mrs Tomlinson was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent a mastectomy and had the lymph nodes under her arms removed.
Two months later she started a three-year study programme at Leeds Teaching Hospitals to become a radiographer and, in June 1993, she qualified and started work.
Soon afterwards, she discovered the cancer had re-occurred in the tissue around the breast and underwent a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The couple went on to have Steven, who was born in 1997, before she started postgraduate study in paediatric radiography two years later.
But on August 31, 2000 she was told she had advanced metastatic breast cancer, which was incurable.
Doctors told her the spread of the disease was extensive and she was only expected to live for six months.
She began a course of chemotherapy, which finished the following year, and it was only then, in May 2001, that she took part in her first race - a 5km Race For Life.
She went on to run in the London Marathon, London Triathlon, Great North Run and cycled 1,060 miles from John O’Groats to Lands End,
Her courage and determination propelled her into the media eye and she was named the Yorkshire Woman of Achievement.
Mrs Tomlinson, 43, from Leeds, who raised £1.75 million for charity, died at St Gemma’s Hospice, Leeds, at 9pm yesterday.
She was diagnosed with terminal cancer seven years ago but defied her illness - and often doctors’ orders - to dedicate her life to raising money for charity.
She refused to believe her diagnosis of terminal cancer meant an end to her active and fruitful life.
She took on challenge after challenge, even after retiring from charity work, the mother of three found strength in running and cycling as she continued to defy doctors’ beliefs that she had just six months to live in the summer of 2000.
Through a series of gruelling feats of endurance, which saw her become the first person in the world to run a marathon on chemotherapy, she raised more than £1.5 million for a series of charities close to her heart.
Courageous, bloody-minded and boldly honest, it was the unfailing support of her three children and 45-year-old husband, Mike, that helped keep her alive.
With a string of high-profile awards to her name, she admitted feeling
“constantly surprised” that she had lived so long, but said she had an
“unfinished job to do as a mum” to Suzanne, 21, Rebecca, 19, and 10-year-old Steven.
Her last big challenge was a 6781.8km ride across America - a far cry from her first race which was a 5km Race For Life in May 2001.
Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on February 21, 1964, she married Mike in the mid-80s and together they built a home for themselves in Rothwell, Leeds, living the life of any normal Yorkshire family.
But in July 1990 Mrs Tomlinson was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent a mastectomy and had the lymph nodes under her arms removed.
Two months later she started a three-year study programme at Leeds Teaching Hospitals to become a radiographer and, in June 1993, she qualified and started work.
Soon afterwards, she discovered the cancer had re-occurred in the tissue around the breast and underwent a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The couple went on to have Steven, who was born in 1997, before she started postgraduate study in paediatric radiography two years later.
But on August 31, 2000 she was told she had advanced metastatic breast cancer, which was incurable.
Doctors told her the spread of the disease was extensive and she was only expected to live for six months.
She began a course of chemotherapy, which finished the following year, and it was only then, in May 2001, that she took part in her first race - a 5km Race For Life.
She went on to run in the London Marathon, London Triathlon, Great North Run and cycled 1,060 miles from John O’Groats to Lands End,
Her courage and determination propelled her into the media eye and she was named the Yorkshire Woman of Achievement.
