Expecting that she will soon lose her battle with cancer, comedian Jane Godley says she’s at peace, knowing that her family will be taken care of.
Diagnosed with stage three cancer in 2021, was told in June 2022 that she was cancer-free but recently speaking with the Daily Mail, she revealed that she may die within the year.
With a childhood sullied by poverty and trauma, Janey Godley, a 62-year-old stand-up comedian from Glasgow, grew up with alcoholic parents, an allegedly murdered mother, and a sexually abusive uncle, who harmed both her and her sister. In 1996, speaking out against their uncle, Godley and her sister relived his abuse from 30 years before, in a four-day trial, that resulted in a two-year prison term for David Percy.
Leaning on her sharp sense of humor to cope, Godley, a comic who’s known for her controversial quips, started stand-up in 1994 and quickly earned a devoted following.
Her Not Dead Yet tour was a 27-date run earlier this year–each show completely sold out–that Godley fit in between gruelling chemotherapy sessions. “Still alive” and “by popular demand,” she fit in another date in early May.
“My past year has been like a giant Wordle game that has swept the nation, I went from ‘cancel to cancer’ in 6 weeks,” Godley writes in her promo. “No, I didn’t smack a man live at the Oscars, in front of millions of people, but I have apologised profusely for historic offensive tweets from over 11 years ago and ended up as the torn, worn out pass the parcel for tribal politics in Scotland. All my own doing, but now it’s time to laugh, live and celebrate after dealing with this dreadful disease.”
The “historic offensive Tweets,” she refers to are a Tweet scandal, headlined by Godley, which as reported by the U.S. news outlet, the Daily Beast, are “obscenely racist.”
Godley’s profile hit international heights during the global pandemic, when she spoofed Nicola Sturgeon, the then First Minister of Scotland, in her daily Covid briefings.
Selected as the face of a Scottish Government Covid campaign, Godley was soon ditched after a Tweet scandal, where offensive Tweets from Godley, making jibes about disabled people, Chernobyl victims and black celebrities like Kelly Rowland and Snoop Dogg, re-emerged.
Referring to her comments as “shocking racist Tweets,” the Daily Beast writes that it “showed the government 20 blatantly racist tweets from Godley that were sent between 2010 and 2012…before she became a government-endorsed mouthpiece, Scottish comic Janey Godley’s old tweets saw her use obscenely racist language towards Black celebs.”
Answering to the Daily Beast’s report, the government canceled the Godley campaign, the comedian apologized and donated her earnings.
She said, “I’m proud of the life I’ve lived. Like everybody else, I’ve made some mistakes”
Now, facing a more permanent kind of cancelation, Godley is trying to put her old controversies behind her.
Godley told Daily Mail on May 18, 2023. “(The cancer) will come back. It’s the nature of that cancer. It starts off as ovarian cancer then peritoneal cancer and then they’ll keep fighting it until my body decides I can’t fight it anymore.”
Though Godley accepted her prognosis, she said family friends are expectedly experiencing the emotional pain of losing a loved one.
On May 15, along with a black and white photo of her having her head shaved, Godley posted a heartbreaking message on Twitter, describing a walk with her dog and her husband Sean Storrie, 61, whom she married 43 years ago.
“Walking with husband and pushing the wee dog in the pram through the west end. He stops, bends double, I thought he was being sick. He was crying. In the street. The man who stays quiet (said)…’I will miss you so much, just simple things like (walking) home after a coffee’ I hate cancer.” She continued, “He has been so stoical–coming to every blood test, every scan, every chemo and always stays practical, helpful and keeps his fears to himself–he has autism so it’s not easy for him–but cancer is so hard on families.”
Godley has a few more engagements planned, mostly promoting her new book “Nothing Left Unsaid,” which she wrote months before she learned of her diagnosis.
She is also writing a follow-up to her 2005 autobiography “Handstands in the Dark.”
Speaking with the Daily Mail, with her daughter Ashley, 26, at her side, Godley says, “We both get told we’re very brave but all we do is cry at everything. Ashley cries a lot.” She adds, “Living with a life-limiting disease doesn’t make you a hero or inspirational. I’m just living until I can’t live any more. I don’t consider that brave. Brave is running into a burning building and taking a wean out of it, or a brain surgeon operating on babies. Those people are brave.”
‘I worked hard. I have a great daughter. I’ve got a marriage that’s lasted 43 years…I managed to make my family financially secure which was very important to me because I came from such poverty,” Godley said, “It’s very important that my daughter will never have to worry about the electricity bill or being evicted or the rent not being paid. She will never have to worry about her dinner.”
Cancer is such a terrible disease and our hearts go out to Janey Godley, her family and friends.
