She made it into the book
Jane
McGrath
1966 – 2008 · Paignton, Devon → Cronulla, New South Wales
Mother · Founder · The Reason for the Pink
This book belongs to women over fifty — and to the rare few who never got there but built something that will outlive us all. Jane turned her own worst news into a nurse at the side of every Australian family that needs one. She was 42.
Her page waits in McGrath pink
until her photo comes home
The things she loved
Glenn, James & Holly
She met a shy fast bowler in Hong Kong in 1995; the family they made was the centre of everything after.
Her breast care nurse
The care that, in her words, let her be “Jane McGrath — the friend, the mother and the wife” — and the whole idea behind the Foundation.
Flying
A Virgin Atlantic flight attendant when she met Glenn — the job that carried her to her whole life.
Pink
Her colour, now a national one — the SCG turns pink each January for Jane McGrath Day.
Her best friend Tracy
Tracy Bevan, who promised Jane she'd carry the Foundation on — and has, ever since.
Building things that last
She set the goal herself: a breast care nurse for every family that needs one, free, wherever they live.
What she did
Born Jane Steele in Paignton, Devon — a newsagent's daughter.
Met Glenn McGrath in Hong Kong while flying for Virgin Atlantic. Australia gained one more remarkable woman.
Diagnosed at 31. Mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy — and a breast care nurse whose support changed what came next.
Married Glenn, then James and Holly — the children she'd been told might never come.
The cancer returned in her bones. She kept building anyway.
Co-founded the McGrath Foundation with Glenn — mission: a breast care nurse for every Australian family experiencing breast cancer, free.
Died 22 June, aged 42, with the first nurses funded and the mission set.
The SCG turned pink for the first Jane McGrath Day — and has every January since.
What we remember
We remember a woman who was handed the worst news twice and answered it with infrastructure. What began with a handful of nurses has grown into hundreds, beside more than a hundred and sixty thousand families — so many of them in country towns that would otherwise have had no one. Every January a cricket ground full of strangers wears her colour. That's not fame. That's love, organised.
Rest gently, Jane. You made the book. Read her full story on the blog