Tributes to nursery nurse after brave cancer fight
TRIBUTES have been paid to a nursery nurse who has died following a battle with cancer.
Sarah Jane Cowan, from Accrington, died on Wednesday, August 24, aged 54.
She had worked in schools across the Hyndburn area after qualifying as a nursery nurse.
Her daughter Jessica said she had been diagnosed with lung cancer last December.
She said: “We were told that the type of cancer she had was quite aggressive.
“She had been managing really well with her chemotherapy treatment up until about six weeks ago, and then we found out the chemo she was having wasn’t working.
“They gave her a timeline of two to six months and she spent the last two weeks of her life in the East Lancashire Hospice.”
Jessica thanked the staff at the hospice for the way they cared for her mum.
She said: “They looked after her really well and the staff at East Lancashire Hospice were fantastic. She felt really safe and comfortable there, which is all you can ask for.”
Sarah Jane, of Limefield Street, worked in schools across the Hyndburn area after qualifying, and Jessica said that she loved working with children.
She added: “She worked at a few different schools. She started at Northcliffe Primary School where she worked with disabled children.
“She was working at St Paul’s Benjamin Hargreaves Primary School up until she fell ill.
“She loved working with children, looking after them and spending time with them.
“She came from a big family, she had five brothers, and she had four children.”
Jessica said when she wasn’t working, her mother was a quiet person who loved nothing more than spending time with her children and granddaughter Maya.
She added: “Some people when they find out they’re ill want to bungee jump or jump out of a plane.
“My mum just wanted to spend as much time as she could with her family, she spent every spare minute she could with her granddaughter Maya. She was so young and she wasn’t ready to leave. She didn’t have any big achievements, her family was her achievement.”
Sarah Jane leaves her four children Wesley, Jessica, Joshua and Iona, and granddaughter Maya.
Her funeral will be held on Friday, September 2 at St Anne’s Church in Accrington at 10am.
See page 12 for Sarah’s obituary
‘She loved working with children’