Janey Godley’ s daughter Ashley Storrie has opened up on her mum receiving end of life care and the impact it is having on her.
Ashley has followed in her mum’s footsteps and is also a comedian but after it was announced last month that Janey was moving into a hospice to receive end of life care, Ashley has been struggling with how to cope with this incredibly hard time in her life.
The 38-year-old, who has autism, opened up on Instagram in a powerful statement which detailed how she’s handling the situation and why she is continuing to work.
In a poignant Instagram post, Ashley penned: “Dealing with mum’s end of life while autistic is hard. People keep telling me to do what i need to do. Follow my heart. I have no natural instinct for this kind of thing. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. She’s too tired to tell me.
“She said ‘Keep working’ so that’s what I’ve been doing. Successfully compartmentalising my life so I can cope, and cope I have. Today I went to hospice to see her and the little wall of cope i built, crumbled to dust.
“I struggle to do two things at once. I can’t be there for her and there for myself. I need to pick and no matter what I pick I feel like it’s the wrong choice. Like I’m letting her down either way. People keep saying to ‘treasure these last moments’ but they don’t feel like treasures. These moments feel like things I don’t want to remember or relive.”
She added: “I don’t like leaving the house because no matter where I go, well meaning people want to talk about it, ask me how I’m doing, and my answer never seems satisfactory to the strangers with sympathetic faces and questions I don’t want to answer.”
Ashely went on to admit that there is no right answer: “The horrible conclusion is there is no right answer. There’s no right way to do this. Like everything else, I’m going to have to do this my own way. Put on a mask when I need to and take advantage of the moments I can be my ‘bad at death’ self. I’ll continue to cope. Maybe not in the way *you* think I should. Or maybe this is exactly how *you* think I should. Or maybe *you* shouldn’t matter?
“Would this be easier if we didn’t live our lives so loud? Is it bad that there are days where I don’t want to think about it? Is it bad that there’s a part of me longing for this to be over so I can move on? Is it worse that there’s a part of me that wants her to cling on, suffering, so it isn’t over?
“I’m not really looking for answers. I just know that sometimes these feelings I have, the confused ones that make me feel grim, when I share them, occasionally there’s a person who reads it and feels grateful that I can verbalise emotions they can’t, and It makes this bad feeling seem useful in some respect. It makes it all feel meaningful which helps me cope.”
On September 25, Janey, 63, broke the devastating news to fans that her cancer had spread and that she would now be spending the rest of her life in a hospice where she will receive palliative care.
Janey said: “The chemo ran out of options, and I couldn’t take anymore of it. The cancer has spread, so it looks like this will be getting to near the end of it, and it’s really difficult to speak about this and say it to people.
“It is devastating news, to know that I’m facing end of life but we all come to an end some time. I don’t know how long I’ve got left before anybody asks, I’m not a tick tock, I just want you all to know that I appreciate all the love you’ve gave me. Cancer affects one in two people and it’s affected me.”
Janey, who found viral fame during the pandemic with her voiceover videos of Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus news briefings, confirmed she had been diagnosed with cancer in November 2021.
She was given the all-clear in 2022 and said in a post to X that a scan showed “no evidence of disease”. In a later announcement, she sadly updated that a further scan had shown signs of the disease in her abdomen.
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