Snapshots from a Life
Jane walked at twelve months and insisted we walk round the block several times each day until she and we were exhausted. She loved animals and treated them as brothers and sisters. She made up elaborate names for the many cats we had over the years: Excalibur (Cally), Tabitha Mary Twitch… Her love of our dog, Holly, was reciprocated profoundly when Jane got ill.
Jane appeared at the end of the garden unexpectedly one October afternoon, aged three, offering to help clear some debris and build a bonfire. This she did with evident delight. Starting school at age five, she thoroughly enjoyed her days at primary school.
At ten years Jane had already begun to write down stories and poems. These were rarely shared with us at first but as she grew older she liked to know what we thought. Although very much involved in real time activities – Brownies, Guides, a theatre youth group (CYTO), ‘ball girl’ at the Stella Artois sponsored tennis tournaments, an avid supporter of Torquay United FC – it was clear much of her life operated in a world of the creative imagination.
She loved family life and was always a happy presence in the house. She had a very wide circle of friends at school and locally. In fact, people of all walks of life became friends. She was delighted to gain a place at her chosen secondary school and was very happy there. She loved her work- experience at Whites pet-shop in Penge, even if it meant cleaning out the animals’ cages on a regular basis, and also her work experience at Anerley Primary School.
A conscientious hard-working student, Jane gained good grades in her GCSEs, passed several music and drama exams, was a member of the Croydon Youth Theatre, performing in many of their shows. After her silver medal award from LAMDA she was asked by one of the adjudicators, ‘Are you an Irish lady?’ She said, ‘Of course’. They had been impressed by her rendering of Tweeny, the maid, in J.M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton. ‘ You made us laugh’, they said. They were equally impressed by her performance of a passage from The Diary of Anne Frank. Jane was looking forward to university and following a career in theatre or television.
Birthdays were important occasions for Jane. They were times for gathering friends together with family. For her eighteenth birthday on October 20, 1992, friends and family came from far and wide for a wonderful celebration. A week later, taken to the doctor because she seemed pale and had had a couple of nosebleeds, she was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Nevertheless she continued with her studies, mainly at home between hospital stays for blood transfusions, lumbar punctures, chemo and radiotheraphy, all the while making entries, whenever she had the strength to do so, in her diary. The small exercise book had been given by her Aunt Sonia. Jane thanked her aunt for her ‘thoughtfulness’.
Too ill to sit her A level exams, she nevertheless managed to finish her A level English Literature Coursework. With a score of 36/40 she was awarded a posthumous Grade A by London University.
After Jane’s death, the Croydon Youth Theatre dedicated their next production to Jane’s memory. It was Alan Ayckbourn’s Invisible Friends. At her graveside, seven members of the youth theatre walked forward from the crowd and, in turn, placed a red rose on the grave.
A person of passion and imagination, truth and courage, Jane’s writings and personal story found their way into the press and media for months and for years after her death. We hope that, through this website, her story and writings will continue to reach out and inspire.