Jane Tomlinson

Jane Emily Tomlinson, CBE (née Goward; 21 February 1964 – 3 September 2007) was an amateur English athlete who raised £1.85 million for charity by completing a series of athletic challenges, despite suffering from terminal cancer.

Having had treatment for breast cancer in 1991, aged 26; the disease returned in 2000 throughout her body. During the next six years, Tomlinson completed the London Marathon three times, the London Triathlon twice, the New York Marathon once and cycled across Europe and the United States. Jane Tomlinson died in 2007, aged 43.

Early life

Jane Emily Goward was born in Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1964, the sixth of ten children of a dentist. When she was aged 11, the family emigrated to Australia but returned after three years. In 1990, Tomlinson applied to study Mathematics at the University of Leeds. However, when she found a lump in her breast and had a lumpectomy, she enrolled instead at Leeds General Infirmary and trained as a radiographer. By this time, she had married Mike Tomlinson and had two daughters, Suzanne and Rebecca. They later had a son, Steven. Qualifying in 1993, Tomlinson later studied to postgraduate level and became a paediatric radiographer. Three years after having a lumpectomy the cancer returned and she had a second mastectomy, and two rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In 2000, Jane Tomlinson was told that the cancer had spread to her bones and lungs, and was given about 12 months to live.