Posted by Admin
Post Date : Friday October 13 2006

British cancer campaigner completes trans-American cycle trip

Fri Sep 1, 1:35 PM ET

Six years ago she was told she had only months to live, but terminally-ill cancer campaigner Jane Tomlinson cycled into New York after a gruelling charity ride across the United States.

The 42-year-old from Leeds, England rode into Battery Park overlooking the Statue of Liberty to be welcomed by family and friends after covering almost 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) in the nine weeks since she set out from San Francisco.

"It's a huge relief. I wasn't sure if we'd be here," said Tomlinson, whose previous fundraising challenges have included the Ironman, three triathlons and the London and New York marathons, once while on chemotherapy.

Her husband Mike said he was amazed she had managed the feat, having faced wild dogs, temperatures in the high 40s Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) and mountain passes almost twice as high as anything on the tour de France.

"I am very, very astonished that she's here. As late as Wednesday it all looked in doubt. The weather's not been kind to us, the roads have been tough... We seem to have been going from one crisis to another," he said.

Tomlinson, a mother of three, said that her family and especially nine-year-old son Steven kept her focused enough to complete the challenge, which she began just weeks after undergoing her latest chemotherapy treatment.

"It was the idea of getting to New York. The couple of times that were really difficult, Steve was there and just wanted us to get here," she said.

She has said this will be her last challenge of this scale and said the first thing she wanted to do was to spend some quiet time with her family back in England.

A source of strength to those undergoing cancer treatment, Tomlinson has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II and the BBC and was voted the most inspirational woman in Britain in 2003.

Her advice to those who have recently been diagnosed with cancer was to carry on, regardless.

"You just have to try and live your life as well as possible and enjoy it as much as possible," she told AFP.

"However difficult it is, you should just try and make the most of the time you've got. It's very easy to get down about your future but you've still got a future and you should live it as well as possible."