Mum had 'no warning signs' of illness before being given just months to live

19 November 2023 , 12:20

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Mike and Janet in better times (Image: Mike Rooney)

The husband of a mum-of-three was left devastated after his wife went to her doctor over a heart problem only to find she had terminal cancer.

Grieving husband Mike Rooney, 63, has honoured wife Janet by raising an incredible £115k for The Christie Charity to establish The Janet Rooney Fellowship, which is dedicated to advancing research into the "dreadful" cancer that killed her.

Mike, from Todmorden, west Yorkshire, told the Manchester Evening News there were no signs that anything was amiss. He said: “There were absolutely no symptoms. It’s a dreadful cancer because it hides itself. It’s so difficult to detect until it’s too late. [Medics] said there were things we could try, which we did, but it wasn’t to be. The cancer was already set in her body.

Janet, who always 'put other people first', died after just five months of being diagnosed (Mike Rooney)

“It was a short period, really. We found out in September time that she had cancer and she passed away in the April.” The mum-of-three had gone to her doctor and found she had a heart issue which medics dealt with by fitting her with a pacemaker to help her heart beat at a normal rhythm.

But during that intervention tests and scans also showed medics that something else was wrong. Janet had what appeared to be a growth on her liver. Doctors initially believed the mum had liver cancer. However, it turned out to be a lot worse as the growth was actually a secondary cancer – with her main disease being hepato-pancreato-biliary cancer. Hepato-pancreato-biliary cancer, or HPB cancer, is a serious form of cancer. In the UK alone, approximately 10,300 cases of pancreatic cancer are recorded every year.

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However, only one in four survive for one year or more, and just over seven per cent survive longer than five years. Following her diagnosis Janet was referred to The Christie hospital in November 2022 but it was already too late. Her cancer was so advanced she died five months later – just a few days after celebrating her 60th birthday.

Mike said the couple had suspected Janet had cancer when medics revealed they had found another issue. He said: “We’re not unintelligent people. We could tell there was another issue. They wanted to see us and we got jumped to the front of the queue of people waiting to be seen. When we sat down, we sat with doctors and nurses. They were trying to break us in slowly. It was dreadful. We knew it was cancer early on. We absorbed it until they officially told us.”

Sadly, Janet developed several chest infections towards the end of her life and struggled to breathe and walk as the cancer spread to her lungs. Mike remembers his wife as a caring and empathetic individual – someone who was constantly helping others. He said: “She put other people first. She fought other peoples’ corners.

“As a young person, she had a place at a music school but didn’t go because she had an older sister who had special needs. She went to the same school so she could help her. She worked as a trustee in a community bank to look after people who couldn’t afford to get loans. She worked in a special needs school as a volunteer. At her own expense and time she organised things and got people in much better places."

Mike Rooney (centre) and friends walking the historic 500-mile Camino de Santiago trek

Mike has paid tribute to his wife by raising an incredible £115k for The Christie Charity to establish The Janet Rooney Fellowship, which is dedicated to advancing research in hepato-pancreatic biliary (HPB) cancer. The kind-hearted husband, along with his friends Nigel Tobias, David Brooks and Paul Whitehead, recently undertook the challenging 500-mile Camino de Santiago trek across France and Spain.

As well as serving as lasting tribute to Janet's memory, The Janet Rooney Fellowship is expected to play a crucial role in advancing research into HPB cancer, a condition that is very hard for doctors to both diagnose and treat. The Fellowship will provide a boost to research efforts and, it is hoped, make a real impact in the field of cancer research and care.

Louise Hadley, chief executive of The Christie Charity said: “We are incredibly grateful to Mike and his friend’s commitment to their fundraising challenges. By funding a research fellow they will not only be honouring Janet’s memory, but also making a very real difference to other patients in the future. Without supporters like them, The Christie would not be able to do the remarkable work it does. We really can’t thank them enough.” To donate to Mike’s fundraiser, .

Paige Oldfield