Jane Emily Goward was born in Wakefield,[4] Yorkshire in 1964, the sixth of ten children of a dentist.

However, when she found a lump in her breast and had a lumpectomy, she enrolled instead at Leeds General Infirmary and trained as a radiographer.

[8] In July and August 2006, Tomlinson spent nine weeks cycling 3,800 miles across the United States, raising £250,000.

[9] Having been elevated to a CBE in June 2007, Jane Tomlinson died in St Gemma's Hospice, Leeds, West Yorkshire less than three months later on 3 September.

[14] In March 2015, a plaque in honour of Tomlinson was unveiled at Victoria Gardens in Leeds, an area she cycled through on some of her fundraisers.