Cardiff<\/a>, was treated for anaemia by a GP after feeling unwell and \u201cnot quite herself\u201d in late 2023.<\/p>\nIn December 2023 her daughter, Elinor James, 40, grew concerned when her mum put the phone down mid-conversation after she “forgot” they were speaking. Jan’s health continued to deteriorate and she was admitted to University Hospital Wales, where an MRI scan revealed a grade 4 glioblastoma \u2013 an aggressive and incurable brain tumour.<\/p>\n
She was given the prognosis of six to nine months with treatment or two to three months without. Jan chose to forego treatment to spend time with her family, including her husband Joseph, 80, daughters Elinor and Charlotte, and grandchildren Ben, 11, Megan, nine, Annabel, eight, and Alice, five.<\/p>\n
Elinor, who lives in Winchester, Hampshire, said: \u201cThe diagnosis came out of nowhere. I thought brain tumours were rare.<\/p>\n
“It never crossed my mind that this would happen to us. Mum was in the prime of her life, enjoying her grandchildren and the things she loved.<\/p>\n
“Within days, everything changed. We had to watch her decline and eventually say goodbye, it was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being diagnosed with anaemia in 2023, Jan’s health continued going downhill and Elinor worried about her mum’s lapse in memory. On December 2, 2023, Elinor, her husband Thomas and their children drove to Jan\u2019s house, but upon arrival, could tell that she was very unwell.<\/p>\n
![\"Jan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_gran-who-put-he-1425936.jpg\")
Jan Forster and her granddaughter(Image: Brain Tumour Research\/SWNS)<\/p>\n
Following this, they called an ambulance and Jan was admitted to University Hospital Wales for a CT and MRI scan. With no option for surgery and Jan opting out of treatment due to the short prognosis and expected impact on her quality of life, she was sent home with medication.<\/p>\n
Elinor said: “Mum was clear that she didn\u2019t want treatment. If the prognosis had been longer, she might have considered it.<\/p>\n
“But she didn\u2019t want to spend her final months suffering through it. My sister Charlotte and I worked closely together as a team with our dad Joseph, who never left mum\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Jan\u2019s condition began to rapidly deteriorate, she was placed under palliative care and moved to Ty Llandaff Care Home, Cardiff.<\/p>\n
Elinor said: \u201cMum became completely disabled almost overnight. Before her diagnosis, she had been enjoying retirement, baking, reading and spending time with her grandchildren. She had so much more life to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan died on March 26, 2024, at home surrounded by her loved ones – three months after her initial diagnosis.<\/p>\n
![\"Jan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_gran-who-put-he-1425933.jpg\")
Jan Forster when she was a new mum(Image: Brain Tumour Research\/SWNS)<\/p>\n
Elinor said: \u201cI never imagined that something like this would happen to our family. It\u2019s changed how I see everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need better treatments, more research and more support. I\u2019ve since learned that around 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour each year, yet they receive just 1% of the national spend on cancer research. That\u2019s shocking and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elinor and her daughter Annabel are taking part in the national Walk of Hope, in the New Forest in honour of Jan on Saturday, September 27, which raises vital funds for Brain Tumour Research. The pair have already raised more than \u00a3466.<\/p>\n
Elinor said: “She was also one of the funniest, warmest and most generous people you could ever meet, with a witty sense of humour. It\u2019s our way of remembering mum and helping make sure other families don\u2019t have to go through what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan Forster, from Cardiff, was initially diagnosed with anaemia after feeling tired 11:30, 07 Sep 2025Updated 11:39, 07…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,1204,12502,4884,105,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-405136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-cardiff","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115162837661884229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_gran-who-put-he-1425937.jpg\")
Jan Forster with her daughter Elinor and her grandchildren Annabel and Alice(Image: Brain Tumour Research\/SWNS)<\/p>\n