Posted on 09/02/2006 4:57:07 AM PDT by notonyournelly
“IT WAS very difficult,” said Jane Tomlinson yesterday. Some of us might use that phrase to describe getting out of bed on a Monday morning, but she was referring to the epic 4,200-mile (6,760 km) ride across the US that she had just completed.
Her website describes it as “the greatest endurance feat ever to be attempted by someone with terminal cancer”, and it is difficult to dispute the claim.
On Wednesday her husband Mike had grave fears that his 42-year-old wife was too ill to complete the final leg to New York. But somehow she found the energy to continue, despite the pain and suffering that she had inflicted on her body over the past nine weeks.
As she rode into Battery Park yesterday, an emotional Mrs Tomlinson said: “I’m just relieved it’s over. I thought it was going to be a bit of an adventure but it turned out to be a bit of an ordeal.”
At the finish, Mr Tomlinson said that it had been distressing to watch his wife going through pain. “There are at least seven or eight occasions where I asked her to pack it in,” he said. “She ignored me like a good wife should, and she’s been proved right. I’m very, very astonished that she’s here.”
One of her co-riders, Ryan Bowd, 27, a lecturer at the University of Leeds, said that Mrs Tomlinson had battled on despite “agony so fierce you can only appreciate it when you see it”. “As we rode, Jane was visibly in greater pain than I have ever seen her in. On the climbs you could hear her purging the pain through muffled grunts and groans,” said Mr Bowd, from Calgary, Canada.
“[Then] something clicked into gear for her and she seemed to bottle up her pain and pick up the speed. I realised that I was watching Jane turn the impossible into the improbable and then reality.”
She faced strong winds and baking temperatures as she cycled from San Francisco across America’s vast interior.
Steven, the couple’s nine-year-old son, accompanied his parents. He said: “I think it’s great to be here because there’s nothing else to do: we can just get on as a family and enjoy what time she has got left. I’m really proud of her.”
They also have two daughters, Suzanne, 21, and Rebecca, 18, who remained at home in Leeds. Mrs Tomlinson, a radiographer, now plans to spend some time with her family.
Six years ago she was told that she had metastatic breast cancer and had six months to live. However, she was determined to prove that a diagnosis of cancer did not mean the end to an active life. Since then she has completed a full ironman event — a 4km (2.4m) swim, 180km bike ride and full marathon — in less than 17 hours and run the London Marathon three times. She has also completed the New York Marathon and three London triathlons.
Maureen Rutter, director of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “Jane Tomlinson is an inspiration to the many people in the country who are also living with cancer.”
Donations can be made at www.janesappeal.com
(note, I hope it's ok to include the url to this womans appeal website, it does form part of the article text)
But after reading this, I think I shall just crawl into a hole and hide.
What an amazing spirit.
Wow.
I do get sentimental reading stuff like this. People like this live on even after they pass away from life. This is one strong woman!
Thx for the post.
it's really interesting and all, and good for her, but I'm not sure I get the point...but hey, that's just me.
I must say, for all her nobility of spirit, I don't quite get the point either. Participating in events like an Ironman and other athletic tests is wonderful, just to show that you're not going down without a fight--but to spend the last months of your life in more agony than you need to be in? Why?
If I had terminal cancer but were well enough to bike across America, I think I'd enjoy my final months by travelling to see some beautiful things, riding horses, and doing theses things WITH the people I love instead of isolating myself on some project like this. She can't get those months back when every moment could have been spent with her husband and other family members.
"Her aim is to raise over £1,250,000 (US$2million) for UK and American based cancer and children's charities."
from http://www.janesappeal.com/
"but to spend the last months of your life in more agony than you need to be in? Why? "
If you've never biked or run to the finish of an event. I probably can't explain it to you, but I know why she did it, and I think she's glad she did. I see that her family knows why.
I finished mountain bike races when I was in my sixties and it was a truly great feeling. Sometimes I even took 2nd or 3rd place. What a satisfaction!
plus... she was given six months to live six years ago.
Perhaps these things have helped her to keep going?
Perhaps that's just the way she is.
Who knows?
Remarkable woman though.
And I'm camera shy anyway. The last thing I want is my life in the media. I don't understand people who look for it.
Not just you. I don't think I'd want to spend what I thought to be the last few months of my life cycling across the country. If I had to urge to cycle, it would be with my close friends and family in a less rigorous atmosphere, where I could still go home at night and spend even MORE time with my family.
Count me in...
When I was training for my marathon, I know it took years to build up to it and then a solid year of pretty intense training to prepare. It took a lot of time. But I was single, no kids...
And if I read this correctly, this lady's been doing all this stuff for the past 6 years, which would mean she took a lot of time to focus on herself when her daughters were still pretty young...
Terry Fox was the first media "star", trying to run across Canada after having cancer and having his leg amputated. None of the stories since then have gotten the attention his did.
I think the point is that a dying person did something that would be very difficult for a relatively healthy person to do. I take it as either an affirmation of life or an act of defiance against cancer -- probably a bit of both.
I'm sure she looks at it as a great accomplishment; I'd just want to spend time with my family for whatever time I had left to me.
I have done so; I'm an athletic person. And I also know what it likes to stare a major illness in the face and know I could well die. I would cherish every moment with my family, especially if I had young children. I'd consider that with limited time, I would have no right to deprive the children of their mother for five minutes much less for months.
" have done so; I'm an athletic person. And I also know what it likes to stare a major illness in the face and know I could well die. I would cherish every moment with my family, especially if I had young children. I'd consider that with limited time, I would have no right to deprive the children of their mother for five minutes much less for months."
Her kids are all grown up, except the nine year old who rode with her. Everybody did what made them happy.
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