Get back up again
Jane Mann, 59, from Chester, believes a positive attitude can change everything – even cancer...
Calculating dates in my head, I worked out that my next period was only due in two weeks. But, staring down at my pants in the office bathroom, there was no mistaking it – there were spots of blood.
It was 1991, and at 30, my periods had always been regular –but lately, I’d been bleeding in between.
A single mum to Jessica, then six, and working full time at an accounting firm, I was rushed off my feet.
Perhaps it’s stress, I thought. When the bleeding continued, I went to my GP and asked to have a smear test.
A few days later, when my results came back abnormal, I had a biopsy done right away.
‘You have cervical cancer,’ my doctor told me.
I was devastated, and my only treatment option at that point was drastic.
My cancer was so bad, I had to have a hysterectomy.
I’m only 30, I thought. While I wasn’t with anyone, I’d hoped to have more children one day – but that was snatched away in an instant.
Still, Jessica needed me, so in September that year, I had my operation at Chester Royal Infirmary. It went well, and doctors were able to remove the cancer. While in recovery, a neighbour came to visit me.
‘I brought this,’ he smiled, handing me a piece of paper.
It was an application form for the London Marathon.
My face dropped and I burst out laughing.
I’d never run a day in my life! ‘It might do you some good,’ he went on.
A while later, after he’d left, I found myself alone on the ward, feeling sorry for myself.
Looking at the form again, I had a change of heart.
He could be right, I thought. I think I’ll give it a go!
So I started running right after I got out of hospital.
It was hard at first – I’d just recovered from surgery and had never run before – but the more I did it, the more I enjoyed it.
Just four months later, in April 1992, I managed to complete the marathon!
After that, I was hooked, competing in
10k races, half marathons and Race For Life runs.
I even did the London Marathon twice more.
Cancer had taken something away from me, but now I was fighting back.
In 2000, I met my husband David, now 71.
He had two daughters – Cordelia, then 22, and Davinia, 19– meaning my dream of one day having more kids finally came true.
We married in 2002, and went on to have six grandchildren – Ira, 10, Cooper and Amber, nine, Griff, six, and Tal and Jax, one.
By 2013, I left the world of accounting and became a fitness instructor instead, encouraging other women to take part in Race For Life. In 2018, with all the kids grown up, David and I decided to travel around Europe in our motorhome.
But while we were in Portugal, I noticed that my swallowing was different.
Food would go past my throat, but then would get stuck in my oesophagus.
I knew this wasn’t normal. We got back in May 2019, and I went straight to my GP.
He referred me for an endoscopy, which I had in July 2019 at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
It showed right away that I had a 10cm tumour in my oesophagus.
‘This is so unfair,’ I cried. ‘I’ve already had cancer!’
Facing cancer again, in September, I started chemotherapy.
The side effects were horrendous – I was crawling up the stairs on all fours from being so exhausted, my hair was falling out, and I was sick all the time. By my third round, my liver started to fail, so I stopped treatment.
By then, my tumour had shrunk enough for me to undergo surgery.
On 16 December, at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, surgeons worked for 12 hours to remove my tumour.
They had to open me up front and back, remove my ribcage, and collapse a lung to be able to get it out. Thankfully, it was a success. Allowed home on 8 January, I was so grateful to be alive.
I’m now on another round of chemo just in case.
I’ve been told there is a 50% chance of my cancer coming back, but I try to stay positive.
I’ve gone from being a fitness instructor who ran marathons to being so weak.
But I’m so grateful for what I do have – a loving husband, three gorgeous daughters, and six wonderful grandchildren.
I’ve even come up with five ways to help people cope with cancer – embrace the love and support of family, eat only the best food, exercise often, do what your doctors say, and make gratitude your attitude.
I knew it was back