Why did some people seem to dislike Jane Tomlinson so much. Did they want her to just go away and die quietly?

Question

I have never understood all of the criticism against her. She ran/cycled and raised a lot of money for charities and there were even people who would phone her at home and say she was lying about having cancer. How cruel is that. I wonder how those people feel now...

Doing all the things she did probably prolonged her life as she was given 7 months to live so why did people dislike what she was doing..?

Mittens - you are right Jane Tomlinson did get death threats...
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13584369,00.html
http://www.express.co.uk/news/view/7025

Answer 1

I never heard that, either. People can be nasty, suspicious and spiteful. I see examples of this on this very site.

Perhaps what Jane Tomlinson represented to people was a very real reminder of our mortality. Here was someone who knew she was going to die, and was in a way parading that fact in front of everyone whilst raising money for good causes. It's one thing to be aware of the existance of cancer, but another to have someone sick and dying on your TV screen. It may have made people uncomfortable.

I'm not excusing them, I am just trying to think of an explanation for their attitude. Death comes to us all, and most people would rather not be reminded of that.

She was a great lady, and an inspiration to most, if not all.

Answer 2

Good God. Aren't some people disgusting?

This woman was an incredible example to us all. For some people, the diagnosis of terminal cancer is so overwhelming that they give up straight away. And that's understandable.

For Jane Tomlinson to have received disgusting phone calls calling her a fraud is a sad indictment of our society. Lance Armstrong is another example of someone refusing to give up against the odds.
In Jane's case, the people who (wrongly) said she was a fraud were probably influenced by some other terrible thing that does happen, that is where people say they, or a relative, are terminally ill and need funds for treatment or that special, last holiday of a lifetime.
Yes, people who do this are the scum of the earth. Unfortunately it does happen. And then it makes it even worse for the people who are genuinely ill.

The family of Jane should be very proud that, in spite of some unspeakably horrible people hurling insults at her, she remained dignified and determined and out-proved them all.
Tragically, her children have lost their mother at an early age. But surely they will be forever proud of how exceptional their mother was.

Answer 3

I wasn't aware that people did dislike her.

If they did, perhaps its because some people seem to feel threatened or jealous of her success.

There are lots of people who have very empty lives who will die having experienced or achieved very little in life. This is usually through lack of imagination and ambition.

When people like this are confronted by someone like Jane Tomlinson it really doesnt fit their model of the world. They cant understand how someone in her position can achieve so much more than them. I think it creates a feeling of embarrasment or inadequacy in them so to make themselves feel better they have to find some way of denigrating what she's doing. In their minds it brings her back to the same level as them.

Thats my theory anyway.

Answer 4

I've never heard anything like that said about her. I thought she was a really incredible lady who did so much to raise money for charity. The bike tour she went on with her brother showed what an unselfish person she was. I was saddened by her death. The sad thing is that there are people out there that delight in other peoples suffering & are extremely nasty with it but those people should remember that what goes around comes around & one day it could be them that is being taunted.

Answer 5

Good grief. People phoned her and said she was lying about her illness?

I haven't heard any such spiteful allegations aimed at this lady, and if I had, I would have made a noise about it, as I think that is just wrong. I find it very sad that people can be that small-minded.

Where is the sense in being needlessly cruel to (or about) someone who was suffering greatly herself, but still went out of her way to help other people so much?

Answer 6

Good question MrJT & one that I thought too. I can only put it down to ignorance, jealousy (that a person could achieve so much against such bad odds) and pure vindictiveness. There can't be a positive slant that would explain how people came to these nasty conclusions. There sure are some ghastly individuals out there. If they could only achieve a fraction of what she did, despite such aversity, the world might be a nicer place. I'd like to think that they now hang their heads in shame - but I doubt it.

Answer 7

Probably an inordinate amount of jealousy. I thought the woman was an inspiration - but she made me feel TOTALLY inferior. SHE was dying of cancer and she made millions for charity, cycling, swimming etc - and I moan and bleat because I've got bloody back and a few other problems! She certainly made you look at yourself and put things into perspective. And that was the problem! Jane Tomlinson's name should be synonymous with the word "BRAVE".

Answer 8

I have no idea why people would say those terrible things.
Jane was an inspiration to us all, in fact she showed the rest of us up in a bad light, I often wonder how she managed to keep going through the pain.
When my son was diagnosed with Cancer, he received DLA, he got a car and the comments we got were "How can you afford that, you don't even work". They also scratched it all over with a screw driver.
Rest in Peace Jane.

Answer 9

Listening to the radio yesterday, it was stated that many other cancer sufferers felt inadequate when comparing themselves with Jane.

They bellieved that her "Up and at em" view of life made their daily grind to get through their lives

I am not saying that this is where the accusations came from but does make you look at a different perspective.

Answer 10

I can't understand it.

Even if she had been lying about her cancer (which she evidently wasn't), she went out there and did something for someone other than herself, she put herself through immense physical pain and supported a lot of charities, I doubt anyone who criticised had ever volunteered at their local charity shop let alone contemplated anything on the scale of what she had done.