VIDEO: Over 1,000 women turn Sheffield pink running Race For Life

Women of af all ages turned Sheffield pink earlier today to help raise money in the battle against cancer.
The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Jayne Gosling, a cancer nurse who is also battling the disease started the race. Photo: Chris EtchellsThe Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Jayne Gosling, a cancer nurse who is also battling the disease started the race. Photo: Chris Etchells
The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Jayne Gosling, a cancer nurse who is also battling the disease started the race. Photo: Chris Etchells

Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life was held at The Oasis, Meadowhall shopping centre, on July 3 - with 1,800 women joining the pink army and running or walking the 5km race.

Organisers estimate that, once all their sponsorship money is collected together, around £100,000 will have been raised for the charity.

The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris EtchellsThe Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
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Special guest Jayne Gozling - a cancer nurse who is battling the disease herself - opened the race and shared her inspirational story with the runners.

Jayne, aged 46, who lives with her partner, as diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2013 after finding a lump and noticing that her left breast had changed shape.

She was initially told that the cancer was curable, but after a bone scan the following week she was told that it had already started to spread to her bones and that she could not be cured.

Jayne had six cycles of chemotherapy, surgery to remove the lump, followed by 33 sessions of radiotherapy. Her last scan in February showed that her cancer is stable.

The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris EtchellsThe Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
The Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
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For over 20 years before her own diagnosis, Jayne had been caring for and treating cancer patients on a daily basis as she was an oncology nurse in inpatients at Weston Park Hospital.

After her diagnosis, she became the patient herself, and was the one being treated by her friends and colleagues.

She said: “It was good because I knew the people involved in my care and I was reassured knowing they would do the best for me, but too much knowledge can be dangerous thing.

“I knew how bad things could be. I knew what was ahead, what the side effects were going to be and how hard it would be. What I didn’t realise was how hard it would also be for those I worked with, having to give me bad news, giving me treatments they knew would make me feel bad. I also felt I held back in telling them exactly how rough I felt sometimes as I didn’t want to upset them.”

Crossing the finish line in the Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris EtchellsCrossing the finish line in the Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
Crossing the finish line in the Sheffield Race for Life 5k event at Meadowhall. Photo: Chris Etchells
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Jayne still works as a cancer nurse, now specialising in haematology over at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and is able to use her own experience to help both patients and colleagues.

She added: “I felt I lost a year of my life. I had aged, my appearance had changed and my normal life didn’t exist anymore. I resent the treatment sometimes, even though I know I need it.

“Now, I am not cured of cancer, but thanks to research and drugs I am taking I am living with cancer. All the time research is finding new treatments that are being developed and used. If my cancer did flare up again in the future, I am confident that research would have found something to beat it with. That is why Race for Life is so important for raising money to support the work of Cancer Research UK.

“Now I can make plans for the future. I would like to do something that could combine my professional experience with my personal experience of cancer to help other people. I feel I have got so much to offer.”