Comedian Janey Godley has cancelled her tour and made the sad announcement that she has terminal cancer.
Janey, 63, from Glasgow, had been due to join a tour of UK cities including London, Belfast and Edinburgh but has been advised by her doctor to “stop working for the time being”. Halted.
A statement about the comedian’s career read: “It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of Janey Godley’s Autumn 2024 tour.
“Janey has had terminal ovarian cancer for many years and thanks to the fantastic care provided by the NHS in Scotland the disease has been halted but sadly in recent weeks the cancer has returned and some further complications have arisen. Doctors have now advised her to cease work for the time being.
“Janey is shocked to let down her thousands of loyal fans and the great venues she has performed at so often over the years. She wants to thank everyone for their love and support at this difficult time,” the PA news agency reported.
Today the star revealed she is being treated in hospital for sepsis, but that it is now “under control”. The comedian also apologised for having to cancel her autumn tour whilst she was undergoing treatment.
In a video posted to social media, she said: “I’m so sorry. I sold thousands of tickets so a lot of people have jobs but my poor agent Chris has been amazing.
“I’m in hospital. I’ve been here for 8 days, I also have sepsis and my cancer treatment team has advised me to stop working just to recover,” adding, “The sepsis is under control but the cancer is spreading. That’s why they said that.”
Janie announced in 2021 that she had ovarian cancer, but in 2022, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), she announced that she had been given the all-clear, saying that scans “showed no signs of disease.” As shown.
But she later revealed that another test showed signs of illness in her abdomen, but added that she planned to continue to tour in February and March 2023.
The popular comedian told ITV’s Lorraine that her colleague Jimmy Carr played a key role in persuading her to go on tour despite her diagnosis.
She said: “We decided to cancel the tour and my mate Jimmy Carr said, ‘Is your mouth feeling sick?’ And I said, ‘Yeah my mouth is fine’ and he said, ‘Well let’s get back on tour then.'” The Scotsman said she was “over the moon” to be celebrating another birthday, two years after her devastating diagnosis.
After celebrating the day that she never thought “would happen”, Janey shared the message from her daughter with her 293,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ashley had written on Facebook about her mum: “To the woman who birthed me. You made it another year. A year we didn’t think we were going to get. And in amongst the sadness and the regrets and the fear look at what we did. Look at what we’ll do.”