Jane Tomlinson, who has died of cancer at the age of 43, seven extraordinary years since she was given six months to live, was an inspirational fundraiser who relished every penny she earned for respite care, nursing and research into the disease.
She was a cheerful, unassuming everywoman who was galvanised by her diagnosis to do exceptional things which have now raised more than £1.75m and established a permanent fund which is certain to add plenty more.
Her method was a series of sporting challenges, initially devised with her husband and children as a personal way of making a nonsense of the aggressive breast cancer's claims.
As these feats became ever more astonishing, in the end including the Ironman triathlon, the world's first marathon run on chemotherapy, and cycle rides across Europe and the US, she developed into a very high profile campaigner.
This brought controversy, including occasional scepticism about the true extent of her illness and more considered concern that she might be setting a standard for fighting cancer that was unrealistic for most fellow sufferers. She responded thoughtfully and without resentment, and seldom, if ever, finished an interview without those present being on her side.
As well as her physical achievements, which have entered the medical literature on staving off terminal disease, Tomlinson made an important point about the value of relationships to physical wellbeing. She always, and rightly, began challenges by acknowledging the unwavering support of her husband, Mike, and their three children.
Tomlinson's medical ordeal began in 1990, when she was the mother of two young girls, living an everyday life in the Leeds suburb of Rothwell. A breast lump proved to be cancer. She had a mastectomy and the lymph nodes under her arms were removed, but she responded with a vigour that hinted at what she was to achieve years later.
She started a three-year radiography course at Leeds teaching hospitals - not as a patient, but as a trainee radiographer. After qualifying in 1993, she went on to take a postgraduate course in specialist radiography for children at Sheffield Hallam University in 1999. All the time, she was a busy mother to her growing daughters, who both won university places, as well as encouraging Mike in his work as an IT consultant.
Meanwhile, however, her cancer had returned and attacked other tissues. Nonetheless, she and Mike had a third child, Steven, and agreed that they would give the spreading condition a real Yorkshire fight. At the height of her sporting marathons, resting after a cycle leg into Monte Carlo, she recalled: "When I was first told I was going to die, my son was only three, and I could not bear the idea that he would not remember me. At 36, I felt very much that I was too young to die.
"Now at 40 I feel I have done more than a lot of people do in a lifetime. So if it's my time this year, I would say thank you, God, for what you gave me. I mean, how many other Yorkshire lasses do you know that can say they have cycled to Monte Carlo this afternoon?"
Tomlinson was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the sixth of 10 children who had to shout to be heard, but were close and warmly supportive.
Her brother Luke followed her into a medical career and became senior charge nurse in accident and emergency at St James' university hospital in Leeds.
He was also a key part of the family network which encouraged her as her sponsored sporting targets increased; cycling with her across Europe in 2004, helping to keep her going at sensible speeds and with prudent rests when the pain became almost too much to bear.
Jane and Mike's romance was a local one, in keeping with her fondness for Rothwell, where they were married and set up home in the mid-1980s. Their daughter Suzanne was born in 1986 and her sister Rebecca two years later.
The final phase of Tomlinson's life began with her enrolment in a Leeds gym only weeks after her terminal diagnosis in 2000. By May she was ready to pound around the city's Roundhay park in a local 5km Race for Life, followed by another "good cause" event, the 10km Kirkstall Abbey Dash six months later.
In spite of chemotherapy, the cancer spread to her bones, but she responded with a half-marathon in York and the 2002 London Marathon, which she ran in 4hrs 53mins. People started noticing, and she was awarded the title of Yorkshire Woman of Achievement 2002, which tickled her greatly, and chosen to present an honorary baton to the Queen on a visit to Leeds.
Races followed with ever more impressive times - the Great North Run, a cycle ride from Land's End to John O'Groats - alternating with further honours. She was awarded an MBE in 2003, upgraded this summer to a CBE, and honorary degrees to add to her postgraduate diploma, which she completed while on chemotherapy.
The complications of life in the public eye, which was essential to her fundraising, fazed her comparatively little, although some of the sniping was encouraged by the up-and-down nature of her condition. Pain and exhaustion led her to announce publicly on two occasions that she was giving up charity spectaculars. But remissions saw her return each time.
Her greatest sporting achievement was the Ironman in 2004, which included a marathon, 12-mile cycle ride and 2.4-mile swim, all completed inside 17 hours. In terms of endurance tests, however, it was topped last year by her 4,200-mile cycle ride from San Francisco to New York in temperatures topping 38C on a route that rose above 3,350 metres (11,000ft).
When she finally abandoned the marathons last year, Tomlinson put her energies into organising fundraising sports events, via Jane's Appeal, the motto of which is: "Death doesn't arrive with the prognosis". She leaves Mike, her three children and a grandchild, Suzanne's daughter, Emily, whose birth she had not expected to live to see.
· Jane Tomlinson, athlete, charity fundraiser and radiographer, born February 21 1964; died September 3 2007
