Jan Owen carried on studying for her degree throughout a year of gruelling cancer treatment. Often pausing to think "what's the point?" she persevered and is glad she did. She's now celebrating being in remission and achieving an OU degree...
She said studying with the OU helped her battle through the long bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “It really gave me something to focus on,” she said. “And it’s made me realise how important education is and how much it broadens your horizons.”
Jan left school at 16 and worked in a bank. “Nobody in my family had gone to university, and I think I was just expected to leave school, get a job and get married."
But as she progressed in her work, increasingly she found that new entrants were graduates. “I might have had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I thought 'everyone has a degree and I want one'.”
She began studying part-time for her degree in 2005, having already taken a foundation course with the OU in her 20s. But midway through her studies in June 2008, Jan was diagnosed with breast cancer. The illness was at an advanced stage and she underwent seven months of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, removal of lymph nodes in her left arm, reconstructive surgery, and five weeks of daily radiotherapy. She is currently part-way through five years of hormone therapy.
Throughout her treatment at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Jan refused to give up on her studies, and spent the long hours at the oncology unit poring over her books and writing essays. “I thought that if I stopped, I would never start up again,” she said. “With the prospect of facing my own death and leaving a husband a widower and three young children motherless, sometimes I found it hard to see the point in carrying on with my studies.
“Spending hours working on the assignments trying to meet deadlines often seemed unimportant in the great scheme of things. But I’m glad I persevered, and I had a very understanding tutor who extended deadlines when I needed them.”
Jan is currently in remission. She is enjoying the break from studying, but is considering going on to study for a Masters degree. “My husband Nigel’s got a Masters, and now I’m starting to think I want one too,” she said.
She believes her studies have made her a good role model for daughters Mair, 10, Ellie, 11, and Georgia, 13. “The Open University is an excellent model of how education should be. It keeps you motivated and makes you want to learn,” she said.
“It’s an excellent way to get a degree, and in this climate when higher education is getting more and more expensive, I would certainly recommend it.”
