Denton on Glenn & Jane McGrath

The episode of Enough Rope in which Andrew Denton interviewed Glenn and Jane McGrath is amongst the most popular the series has ever produced.

Yesterday Jane McGrath lost her battle with cancer, surrounded at home by her family.

In her interview with Denton, Jane McGrath spoke about being diagnosed with cancer a second time. The ABC recently aired a section of the interview in April as part of the More Than Enough Rope series. No doubt they must now be considering re-screening the original in its entirety -something the ABC has done with its subjects who have passed away.

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

ANDREW DENTON: Let’s talk about that secondary cancer, Jane. You were given the all clear for the breast cancer and then, a couple of years later, you were diagnosed with a secondary cancer. Is that a scarier thing to hear the second time round?

JANE McGRATH: It was probably easier for me the second time. I’d had this pain in my hip for a couple of months but I was so sure that it wouldn’t be cancer. It never entered my mind that it could be cancer, so I put up with the pain. It steadily got worse and worse. And in the end, the pain was so severe that I couldn’t even get out of bed, I couldn’t walk.

ANDREW DENTON: That’s nature’s way of telling you something.

JANE McGRATH: (Laughs) Maybe something needs looking at. And I went for an X-ray and it showed up a ‘suspicious’ area in my hip which turned… I mean, I’ve never had a bone biopsy. They’re very invasive. I’ve never gone that route. But it was assumed that that was cancer. And I remember the guy, the guy that told me, he was so lovely, it would be dreadful. How do you tell someone that? What a dreadful thing to have to do, but he did it with such kindness. I’d gone up on my own again. You know, I was so sure that it would be nothing.

ANDREW DENTON: So how did he tell you?

JANE McGRATH: He just said, “Look,” Well, he’d said to me, “Let’s have these X-rays,” this is the guy at the imaging centre, “Let’s get to the bottom of it. Are you ready?” I said, “Yeah. I’m sick of this pain. This isn’t right.” And the X-ray showed up this area and he said, “Jane, you know, I’m sure it’s cancer.” And I…my first thought, after several swear words, I was just saying…was the children. ‘Cause it was that fear again…that fear of dying, I suppose, to put it bluntly – that’s what it is. And I thought, “Oh, my God.” I just could not believe it.

You can read the full transcript here.

Source: abc.net.au