Watch the video of her last birthday party below.
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Instead of breaking down after learning that she only had one more year to live, 53-year-old mother Jayne Rae, from Chorley, Lancashire, instead decided to throw the best “last birthday party” ever and invited the whole village to join the festivities.
Rae had been diagnosed with breast cancer and doctors said she only had anywhere between 6 to 12 months to live but the news only motivated her to want to do more for the people around her.
Jayne’s daughter Emma Jade Rae, 28, helped her mother organize the party at Whittle Le Woods and the whole village was invited.
Jayne, a former administrator, said: “My nurse told me I was terminal, and I would be on palliative care and pushed the tissues towards me- I just looked at her and said ‘Oh God, no, I just got a 10-year passport!’
“I didn’t cry, I always see life as a journey, you are born and you die- it’s what’s in the middle that’s important.
“I know I don’t have long to live but if I can do something good and make happy memories, that’s what is all about.
“When you are told you are terminal, I fully understand that some people are too ill, but in my case, while I’m still fit and able to get around and able to do things, I want to do things because it gives me goals to continue.
“Usually on my birthday I have my friends over and a singer so I thought what if this year I’d go bigger and have a really big bash.
“I and my daughter have a lot of friends who are singers so I thought we could have a party for my birthday.
“My family thought I was a bit crazy but they know me, if I put something in my mind I just do it.”
The whole community pulled together and helped and more than 1,000 people managed to attend.point 361 |
With cake stalls, music, barbecues, a raffle, and even a horse, it was definitely the best birthday party the people in that village had ever attended.point 126 | The funds that were raised from the event will go to the local hospice, the hospital, the playground, and the school.point 223 | 1
Jayne said: “It was a lovely day, it was a bit crazy, but it was great, there was a really good atmosphere.
“If you paint an ideal village get-together, it was exactly like that, a real sense of community coming together.
“I know it’s difficult on families and on friends-I have had people cross the street because they don’t know what to say or what to do, it’s too upsetting for them but I’m trying to change that and show to people that a cancer patient is no different than who he was before the diagnosis, just trying to break the stigma away from a horrible disease.”
After getting diagnosed with a tumor on her right breast in June 2014, Jayne went through a full mastectomy and rebuild. But a few months later, insufficient blood flow to her implant forced her to go through several reconstruction operations.
Jayne said: “My boob actually exploded, it went narcotic and black, my whole breast was just a big black scab and there were ulcers all around the edge.
“I was sitting having a cup of black coffee and black liquid started leaking and I thought I had spilled my drink.
“My daughter had to call the ambulance- it was pretty horrifying; I was standing in the bathroom with towels on my breasts and every time I removed the towel it was squirting everywhere.”
The cancer came back last year and despite 15 radiotherapy sessions, Jayne learned that the cancer was terminal this time. But instead of letting the news drag her down, she decided to give the big birthday bash and raise funds for the community.
Jayne added: ”They basically said, it’s back, it’s terminal, it’s spread to my liver, to the base of my lungs to my lymph glands and because it was hitting so many places there was no treatment this time.
“I was told I was terminal and I’d just have palliative care to slow down the progression of cancer.
“The drug I had first didn’t work but the one I’m on now does – it won’t last forever though, it may last three months or five months before it stops working.
“I thought I’ve not got a great deal of time to live and every time I’d go for blood tests, because my chemo my veins aren’t very good, very narrow, small and difficult to get blood out.
“I have my days when I’m in my wheelchair because I’m so tired and in pain and I can’t do anything but on the days that I’m good, I’m thinking ‘what can I do today, what can I achieve today?’”
True to her word, Jayne said she ‘won’t stop there’ and is even planning a Christmas event as well as her own funeral so as not to burden her family.
She added: “When you are told you are terminal, it’s a wake-up call.
“I thought, ‘I know I’m terminal but what can I do between now and death?’
“I have had a really blessed life, I have worked in different places around the world, I have had my daughter.
“Treatments are getting better but unfortunately it’s not going to come in time for me-as long as I continue to do something and bring people together and make memories for everyone, it takes the stigma away.
“When the drug stops working, I will have end-of-life treatment at home, I am already organizing my funeral, I don’t want to bargain my family with it, I already know what passages I want them to read and what music I want.
“I’m just blessed having enough time to sort the things I want and if I can change some people’s attitude then my job here is done.”