Rickmaniacs for Rima

View profile for Jenny Oldfield

Jenny Oldfield

Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. Living with terminal pancreatic cancer. Given 2 years to live. Raising awareness and funds for charities I have the privilege to be involved with.

7mo Edited

This is me with the lovely Rima Horton, wife of the actor Alan Rickman.

Rima was with Alan for over 50 years and she told me he died within 6 months of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The great man was one of the unlucky ones.

This has to stop.

In this day and age, people should not be dying within a few months of being diagnosed with cancer.

I can share my adventures during my final years on social media (jenny2years) and post here about my work with Pancreatic Cancer UK but I cannot force you to donate. All I can do is say that, if you donate, the money will be used to fund research into early diagnosis which will help stop the deaths.

Please support the cause at: https://lnkd.in/d87-D2dz

Name: Rima Horton(Chair)

Term of office: 22.05.18-21.05.22

Committee: Pay, Resources

She said: "It's hard to put into words just how truly horrific pancreatic cancer is and I think that's a significant part of why it's been neglected - why in 40 years we're seen barely any improvement in someone's chances of survival."

She went on to celebrate "the sheer creativity" of the new awareness raising campaign and how her late husband would have agreed with her.

Horton continued: "The sheer creativity at the heart of 'Lost Voices' would have excited Alan, and I'm so pleased that he is part of it.

"The message he and the other wonderfully talented individuals we've lost to pancreatic cancer have for the public is urgent.

"Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest common cancer, but finding a cure isn't a lost cause. With more research I know that a breakthrough will be made that will help save thousands of lives."

“My late husband, Alan Rickman died in January 2016. By the time his cancer was discovered, it was inoperable. So, I am very keen on understanding any developments that might lead to better screening and earlier diagnosis.

Following a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry and a research position, I changed careers and taught economics at two universities in applied microeconomics with particular focus on public sector economics.

A great love is politics and I served as a councillor for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, St Charles ward in North Kensington for twenty years. I have served on a number of public sector Boards and I since 1988 I have been the Chair of Governors for Barlby Primary School, a North Kensington community school.

Another passion is the arts – especially theatre and film.”

HP [7].

6.15am pick-up To the Flight Shed …

Cold, wet, draughty but the crew seem miles away so Ralph and I can just get on with inching our way towards the scene. David Y stubborn as ever about V[oldemort] killing me with a spell. (Impossible to comprehend, not least the resultant wrath of the readers.) Great working with Ralph, though. Direct and true and inventive and free.

LONDON [MAYORAL] ELECTION.

5am Wake up.

5.45am Driven to the hospital.

6am Pre-op. This is like a film set. Nothing seems real.

Remembering nothing but with that painkiller high in the recovery room. Attentive, caring people. [Throughout 2005, Rickman received treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. It was decided that the best option was to remove the entire prostate, an operation carried out at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.]

6pm Car to Chequers … Real sense of the shiver of history going through the gates.

7.30pm for 8. Arrive to find Ben Kingsley & wife, Peter Hain, others … then Richard & Judy arrive, then Tony & Cherie with three-year-old Leo in his arms, in pyjamas.

Dinner for 25. Tony hanging around at the door to talk to me. (Was I the only known critic?) I mentioned Safe, Rima in the Lords and blacklists in the US – not bad for four minutes.