The inspiration for our Member Charity, The Jane Packer Foundation, supporting us in our quest to find a cure, has been honoured with a blue plaque at her birthplace and childhood home in Essex to celebrate her life and achievements.
Jane, who grew up in Chadwell St Mary, Thurrock, was an internationally acclaimed florist and author who wrote a number of books on the subject and set up Flower Schools around the world. She won a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Gold Medal every year between 1993 and 1997.
However, in 2004, Jane began to feel a numbness in her right leg and later came the devastating news that she had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM). She underwent a gruelling course of radiation and chemotherapy and amazingly made a good recovery, allowing her to return to work and live a normal life.
In 2010, Jane suffered a stroke, probably brought on by her radiotherapy treatment six years earlier. The tumour returned too, causing a further stroke in October 2011 from which she never recovered. Jane passed away in November that same year, leaving her husband Gary and two children, Lola and Rebby (pictured above with an image of Jane in window)
During her illness, Jane and Gary frantically looked for treatment options and discovered how woefully underfunded research into brain tumours is in the UK.
Gary set up The Jane Packer Foundation to help fund research through a partnership with Brain Tumour Research, as well as to support staff at St John’s Hospice, London, where Jane spent the closing chapter of her life.