The last time you saw Jane Swarbrigg in the news was likely when she was promoting the Inglot make-up brand, which the glamorous young mother brought to Ireland with her family.
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mother → see → family
Often pictured at some of the most high-profile events in the country, she was the definition of a successful female entrepreneur.
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she → picture → entrepreneur
Now, however, Jane – who lives in Mullingar and shares two beautiful children, Jackson, 6, and two-year-old Georgia, with her husband Brian – is back seeking publicity for an altogether different reason.
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who → live → reason
Until April, she was a busy mum juggling all the usual chaos of family life when devastating news tore her world apart.
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news → juggle → world
Aged 43, she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
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she → age → cancer
Jane Swarbrigg was diagnosed with colon cancer aged just 43.
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Swarbrigg → diagnose → cancer
She had experienced anaemia with her pregnancies and when her fatigue did not lift, she requested additional iron infusions.
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she → experience → infusions
When these did not improve things, she had a faecal immunochemical test to check for blood in her stool, which then led to a colonoscopy and her cancer diagnosis.
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which → improve → colonoscopy
Jane was told that she had tumours in her colon, spots on her lungs and a large tumour on her liver.
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she → tell → liver
Without treatment she was given a prognosis of three to six months.
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she → give → months
She and her family struggled to absorb the diagnosis.
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She → struggle → diagnosis
However, Jane is part of a growing cohort of younger people being diagnosed with colorectal cancers.
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Jane → grow → cancers
In the mid-1990s, an average of 145 people under 50 were diagnosed with bowel cancer here annually.
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average → diagnose → cancer
This is not simply due to population growth – the rate of disease has increased 34 per cent in the under-50s, rising by 74 per cent among 20 to 34-year-olds.
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rate → increase → olds
Jane broke the news of her illness to her followers on Instagram in early August.
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Jane → break → August
‘I remember coming on and I was just trying to be calm, not get upset,’ she says.
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she → come → ?
‘I think when I initially put it up, it was about awareness.
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it → think → awareness
It’s funny because over the years, I’ve spent so much time on social media doing marketing and stuff for my previous business.
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I → ’ → business
I never thought I would be back in the press or online talking about anything like this.’
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I → think → this
Her reticence stems from her maternal desire to protect her children, especially her son Jackson.
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reticence → stem → children
‘I really need to protect him at all costs,’ she says simply.
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she → need → costs
‘I was worried about Jackson at the age he’s at.
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he → ’ → age
So I want to keep the kids out and away from it as much as possible.
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I → want → it
Jane with husband Brian and her children Jackson and Georgia
‘They are my reason to fight this, me not being in their future or their lives, it’s not an option.
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it → fight → future
It just was not a diagnosis we were willing to take.’
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we → take → ?
Her determination speaks to her strength of character.
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determination → speak → character
‘I’m so positive,’ she stresses.
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she → ’m → ?
Her consultant oncologist at St James’s Hospital, Dr Emily Harrold, trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, and saw that Jane might be a suitable candidate for its hepatic artery infusion pump, which delivers doses of chemotherapy directly into the liver multiple times stronger than standard IV treatments.
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which → train → treatments
Jane has had eight rounds of chemotherapy in St James’s and her colon tumours and lung spots have responded well.
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tumours → have → James
She is now determined to ‘get out there and try and keep my fitness levels up’ for her operation in New York on Wednesday.
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She → get → Wednesday
She stresses that bowel cancer used to be an old man’s disease but that is changing.
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that → stress → ?
‘They did say to me, “You’ll probably be one of the youngest up there”,’ she recalls.
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she → say → youngest
Although there is better screening now than before for bowel cancer, it’s unlikely to catch it in younger people.
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it → be → people
‘The stool sample that they recommend for people to get, is from 58 to 70,’ she says.
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she → recommend → 70
‘I wouldn’t have come near to that range.
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I → come → range
Yet I had very advanced and aggressive bowel cancer.
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I → have → cancer
Jane says her husband Brian has been a great support
‘
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Brian → say → ?
I just want to mention my symptoms because, for women with kids, we’re so busy, you nearly take fatigue and anaemia as standard things, or as peri- menopause.
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you → want → menopause
I just was like, I’m an anaemic person.
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I → ’m → ?
Then I had a slight bit of digestion trouble just after breakfast.
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I → have → breakfast
…and 82 more, not listed.
The Aporia
