It is because I am Janie’s oldest friend that the privilege of speaking about her falls to me. This talk may be too long but Janie packed a lot into her life and of course, this is a personal tribute to Janie.
The reason that I met Janie was because she was appointed to do my maternity leave but I miscarried and went back to work promptly. Fortunately the head teacher decided to keep Janie on as she was a breath of fresh air and we needed another biologist. Thus, Janie and I grew to know one another well.
It was 1970 when we met, 41 years ago. She and her husband Ken, ever the apple of her eye, were just back from the States where she had completed her Masters degree in plant pathology. She was highly academic, had a keen and incisive brain, was only 23 years old, full of energy and up for most things. Her directness was refreshing, her honesty disarming and her language was colourful. She had liked the friendliness and lack of stuffiness of the States and her accent was a bit transatlantic. I was almost surprised to find that she was English, a true Cockney, born within the sound of Bow Bells.
Her mother was a lovely lady and a very fashionable one who owned her own business, a hairdressing salon and was an important role model for Janie. She allowed Janie to sell cups of tea to the customers for 2p, thus sowing the seeds of Janie's business acumen. The care and thoughtfulness towards other people displayed by Janie throughout her life also emanated from her mother. Her father was in the air ministry and was an ardent fan of Manchester United and he took Janie all over the country to watch them play. She enjoyed this immensely and so developed her life long passion for United. She had a much older half sister called June, who significantly made her living in the antique business.
(As an aside, I have to say that this passion for United, did her brain no good at all. I have always thought that she was the most clear thinking and logical woman I had met ….but not where United was concerned…they were always right whether they were or not! Ken who is possibly the most argumentative man I have met, never argued with Janie about United.)
One can see how Janie's business acumen, interest in antiques and passion for MU developed but more importantly, Janie was well loved by her parents and this gave her that inner confidence which enabled her to appreciate her own considerable worth and the security to be in awe of no one.
At the girls grammar school where Janie and I taught, were some really old fashioned elderly members of staff. Most of we young staff rolled our eyes at some of their outdated attitudes and actions. Not Janie. She took them on. One of the habits of these old dears was to have their own chair in the staff room, which no one else could sit on, very near the fire. Unknowingly, one break time Janie sat in one of these chairs and was pretty rudely asked to vacate it. She very courteously refused. This was unheard of and the whole staff room fell silent The old dear in question was so amazed that she took a few seconds to start upbraiding Janie about her lack of experience and so on and so on. But Janie stood her ground and said that she had just as much right to sit in the chair as she did, that she was a full member of staff like her and probably a better teacher from what she had heard. A complaint was immediately made to the new head, who to her credit, supported Janie. Thus a little bit of the old regime was ushered out, due to Janie and we were certainly a lot warmer for it. There are many more stories of this ilk, many of them amusing, and all of which showed what a lot of bottle Janie had.
It is worth reminding ourselves that Janie was an excellent sportswoman, was a good footballer and had been the captain of her school hockey team and the pleasure which she derived from sporting activity was lost to her by the lung damage that she suffered, as a result of one of her bouts of cancer. I never heard her complain about this, At the school, every year the staff played the 1st eleven hockey team and were soundly thrashed. Janie decided that this was a tradition too far, and needed overturning. She got together the younger members of staff and whipped us into shape .. in secret. Her enthusiasm for the game and determination to beat the 1st Eleven were infectious and we all tried our best and we did beat them, though it was Janie who scored the goals. This is a good illustration of Janie's dynamism and her ability to get a bunch of people together and make them do something of which they didn't know they were capable.
She had always hankered after going back to America and when Ken got a post in Canada they decided to go. At that time I wondered if Janie would ever come back to teaching as I thought that her heart was in research. I thought it would be a pity if she were lost to teaching as she had the potential to be a talented one, Pupils liked her style and respected her.
However, after about a year, Ken and Janie returned to England because of family commitments and did return to teaching. Eventually they bought their house in Kidderminster and Ken worked at King Charles and in 1977 Janie started at Haybridge high school. In this phase of her life Janie threw her great deal of energy into three main areas: Teaching, Examining, and Antiques.
I shall deal with her school life first. That she ran an excellent biology department was demonstrated by her very good results, the number of students taking her subject at A level and beyond. Janie could recognise talent in a pupil like many other teachers but her great strength lay in making the pupils aware of it and believe in it and then being proactive in helping them to achieve their potential. Many of her ex pupils became medical doctors something some of them would not have aspired to without Janie. Her hardworking, hands on, imaginative approach as the Oxbridge coordinator reaped the same sort of results. Janie went beyond the call of duty to help and support her pupils. These characteristics were not just confined to her pupils, but to all who knew her. She was a good woman, ever thoughtful of and helpful to others
When Janie returned from Canada, she started to work for the examination board based in Manchester and when she came up for regular meetings she would stay with us and got to know my feisty little daughter Kate. Because Janie was very able and a good biologist, she rose through the ranks and ended up being the senior validator for A level biology which basically meant that she was checking the chief examiners work.
Unbelievable as it sounds, at the same time she was building up a successful antiques business. She enjoyed this aspect of her life ; she was her own boss and she liked wheeler dealing and making money and she made some close friends in this world, so close, that one of these, Ron, is her pall bearer. Sara Hays, a friend from the antique world, has flown in from the States today for Janie's funeral and is flying back tomorrow. This gives us an insight into the high regard in which Janie was held. The satisfaction which she derived from the antiques business lasted right to the end of her life
About two years into all of this, Janie had her first bout of breast cancer in her early thirties. Many of her admirable characteristics came to the fore at this point. She found out what had to be done to best rid herself of this cancer: it was to have a radical mastectomy followed by chemotherapy, so she did this. It also meant that she could not have a child. She did not whinge or moan, or feel self pity or bitterness she just did what had to be done, to live.
It was at this point though, that I decided to try to share my daughter Kate with Janie. They had already taken to one another and Janie has had a positive influence on Kate e.g. in her applying for Oxford and has supported Kate throughout the whole of her life. I guess the sharing was successful as Katie is here to day with her husband and children.
Thirteen years later breast cancer struck again and Janie had to have another radical mastectomy. She was not quite so sanguine this time but again, just got on with it, but as a result of the breast cancer invading her lungs she did become disabled and had to leave her teaching career at Haybridge. This was a blow to her, but she did not waste her time regretting it, but concentrated on Ken, her examination work and the antiques business.
Clearly Janie had a lot of experience of being a patient in the NHS and a vested interest in improving their lot. Also, she had more than a passing interest in things medical and in the last phase of her life her consuming interest became her involvement with the NHS. She started out on the Stanmore House patients' panel. Her prowess was quickly recognised and she began to work at county level and became involved in the Worcester Primary Care Trust and other allied organisations. In 2009 she was really pleased to win the Worcester NHS chief executive's award for outstanding performance .Then, the quality of her contribution and appreciation of her worth was recognised nationally and she was invited to join the prestigious body, NICE as the lay person. She got a lot out of that.
About 5 years ago, at about the time she began her involvement with the NHS, her cancer returned but Janie had a zest for living and she willingly underwent several regimes of chemotherapy without complaint, all the while staying cheerful, thoughtful of others, and pursuing her main interests and going up to Manchester with Ken to watch United play. What an impressive woman she was.
Life did become more difficult in the last 6 months and she appreciated being ably and lovingly looked after by Ken. Although we knew she was going to die, her death came unexpectedly and quickly on the evening of the 12th of December. Two hours before she died, she told Ken that she had endured enough pain and that she wanted to go to sleep and not waken. She told him that she had had a good life and that she loved him. And that he wasn't to grieve for her. If you think about what she said, those statements reveal what a big person she was. I think all of us are the better for having known her and we will miss her and remember her always.
Posted on January 11th 2012 by Rosie Benham
I first met Janie in 2002 when I joined Wyre Forest PCT as a project manager for a national collaborative medicines management project. She was already a volunteer helping to set up Patient Participation groups in GP practices and I nabbed her as patient rep in my project. Based in Kidderminster 14 miles from home in Worcester, Janie and I soon became great friends as she invited me home to tea on days when I had evening meetings. We often met in her home to do business as we planned all sorts of activities related to the project, so I partook of delicious snacks, lunches, Ken's homemade soups and often took home vegetables from his allotment.
Janie had a real enthusiasm for educating schoolchildren as she had been head of Biology for many years and we did drama and film-making for which Janie managed to organize professionals to help us from her pool of former pupils. After that she moved with me from project to project and, as we did, her skills were recognized by more eminent people in the NHS who in turn recruited her to their working groups. She was a great and generous friend to me and I learned an enormous amount from her. Her example and influence will stay with me for the rest of my life.