Jadewantedtogivepeoplehope andtotellthemtokeepfighting
THE FAMILY OF THE LATE JADE MCCANN ARE CHANNELLING HER FIGHTING SPIRIT AS THEY FACE LIFE WITHOUT THEIR ‘FORCE OF NATURE’, WRITES
JADE McCann’s family and her partner Bren Anderson use the example of her own great strength and courage to help guide and support them through their profound grief.
The young Greystones woman was selfless, kind, talented, and unforgettable, and has left an indelible mark on the world, despite having left it much too young. She passed away, aged 24, on the morning of October 24, having battled a rare form of cancer for almost two years.
‘I sort of have Jade in my head,’ said Bren. ‘If I’m thinking I’m not going to bother doing something, I think to myself “what would she have said?” She’d say: get up and do it, stop being lazy, you’re well able!’
‘When she was very sick, she hated to waste the day,’ said her mum Kim.
‘She’d be annoyed with herself even though she was so unwell. I find it very hard to get up myself now, I’m like a lead weight. I keep saying to myself, well, she did it. So that pushes me.’
‘If you just move forward a millimetre a day, that’s positive,’ said Jade’s dad Tony, who was diagnosed with cancer three weeks before his daughter. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy for the third time.
‘We get so much still from her and her strength,’ said Tony. ‘I believe that she’s still here. There are days, you know, when you can’t be arsed. It’s like she’s there giving you a kick.
‘ There have been days in treatment when I’d be really down. She’d come in like a breath of fresh air and go “right, come on!” She would pick you up.
‘Other days she’d be the same, and I’d be full of the joys of spring and get her going, so we sort of bounced off each other.
‘You take from the person that’s gone, what they gave you and what they left behind. It would be easy to sit moping or go to the pub, getting yourself down, letting the demons in. You let them in and you’re gone. That person wouldn’t want you doing that.’
Jade’s loved ones are grateful to so many people who have helped them throughout her illness and since her death.
‘Professor John Crown is a 100 per cent advocate for the patient. He is just all for the patient and would do anything for them,’ said Kim.
‘Once she went to him, she was so much more relaxed,’ said Jade’s brother Eoin. They encourage people to support The Caroline Foundation, which supports Prof Crown’s work and research.
They also said that Blackrock Hospice was an incredible place.
‘ The last three weeks before that was pure hell in St Vincent’s,’ said Tony.
‘ They couldn’t get her pain under control,’ said Kim, who was constantly by her daughter’s bedside. ‘ The minute she went into the hospice there was s relief, even I could feel l the difference.’
The residents of Redd ford Park have been a huge support, as well as Sharon Felton and the he Glitter Ball team who o went to great lengths to raise funds for treatment. nt. ‘Our own close friends ds have been absolutely ely amazing. Some of them m really just blew it out of the water and they know who they are,’ said Tony, who said that the goodwill from the community and further afield has been overwhelming.
Jade, known as ‘Jayda’ on Instagram, used the platform to bring light-heartedness and an element of fun, to a subject which was really very serious. ‘She wanted to give people hope,’ said Kim. ‘She wanted to tell people “all is not lost, keep fighting”.’
From the time she was born, Jade was a ‘force of nature’ according to her family.
‘Jade was born feet first,’ said Tony. ‘She came out arseways. She hit the ground running and she never stopped. Every day was an adventure.’
‘Even as a child, no matter what she did, for school, for whatever, Jade was very headstrong,’ said Kim. ‘If she did something, she did it 100 per cent or not at all. If she wanted to do something, nobody was going to stop her. She was like that from when she was tiny.’
Her childhood pastimes included boxing, kickboxing, football, and fishing with her dad and brother.
‘She was such a lovely, kind and compassionate person,’ said Kim, ‘even as a kid.
‘I remember one of the first days she was in secondary school she was getting the Dart into Bray with friends. One of the girls pushed another girl they didn’t know, she pushed her bag on the floor and all her pencils and everything fell out.
‘Jade came home that night and said she didn’t want to play with that girl any more. She helped pick up the other girlsgirls’ things. She was interested in writing recently upsupset her friend had was Alicia Keys-R&B type of dondone that and stood thing, and afro-beat,’ said Bren. agaagainst her. If it was Some of her music will fearighright, it was right, if ture on a documentary by Clusit wwas wrong, it was ter Fox, and actor John Fox. wrowrong. It didn’t matter The film will premier at the whwho it was.’ Dublin Film Festival in Febru‘She was really selfary, and follows Tony and Jade lesless,’ said Bren, who through their arduous journey hahad been going out- with cancer. wiwith Jade for arounda ‘We were filming over the twtwo years, but knew last nearly two years,’ said Tony. heher since they were ‘ When I think about it, I just in their early teens. laugh, we had such good fun.’ ‘If she could give While Eoin plans to work on sosomething to somea collection of her songs at some one, she’d do withstage, the family members find out it if they needed it difficult to listen to her music itt more,’ he said. just at the moment.
She was an exUnfortunately, online bultraordinaryt singer lying some years ago caused and musiciamusician, a talented pianist Jade to abandon music for a and guitar player. She picked while. She was drawing crowds up her love of music from her to the Harbour Bar, Martello, family, with records in the and other venues, and getting house going all the way back many thousands of views on to the 1950s. her Youtube channel, where The family would often go some ugly comments caused the to the quiz in the Beach House young girl a lot of pain. on a Wednesday night and Jade ‘She started to believe what always aced the music round. they were saying,’ said Bren. ‘It’s She learned guitar from her the kind of age she was at. She brother Eoin, and she taught was getting 30,000 views a vidhim how to sing. eo, then overnight she deleted ‘She was incredibly talented,’ the channel, took down all the said Eoin. ‘On guitar, she picked videos, and stopped gigging.’ up in two years what it took She returned to writing songs me four years to learn. Any in more recent times, and even instrument she touched, she had a new piano which is still could play.’ at home in Redford Park.
‘ The sort of music she was Meanwhile, Jade continued to help others more than anyone realised. ‘A chap came up to me at the funeral home. He told me he was getting ready to jump off a bridge at three in the morning on the north side of Dublin,’ said Tony. ‘He contacted Jade and she drove out to him.’ They only knew each other online, and Jade dropped everything to help.
A lady she didn’t know approached Kim at the funeral and simply said ‘you have no idea how much she helped me’, without elaborating.
Bren said that a lot of people would message Jade with concerns about a lump or other symptoms, saying they were scared to get it checked. She would encourage them to go to the doctor.
‘If people wanted her to go with them, she’d go,’ said Tony. She would also visit other patients in hospital and try to keep their spirits up, or give them some of her remedies. ‘Even right up to the very end if someone came in that room that needed her she would sit up and try to help. That was the way she was.’
‘ There were days she couldn’t get out of the bed to do stuff for herself, but if someone said something to her, she’d find a way,’ said Eoin. ‘She was a different breed.’
She was a spiritual person and a reiki master. ‘We are predominantly Buddhist in this house, that came through,’ said Tony. ‘She was very close to my mother and they would go to pray together in the church at the hospital,’ said Tony. She found comfort and peace in spirituality as she reached the end of her short but very special life.