The family had little money, moved often, and parents were frequently unavailable; her mother underwent lengthy hospitalisations due to mental illness and her father, who she "was deeply attached to [..] was often absent", to the point that Jane and her siblings spent several months in a children's home and Jane assumed parental responsibilities early on.
Martin Jarvis, emeritus professor of health psychology, a colleague and friend for 40 years said "I like to think I played a part in persuading her to go on and study whole populations.
Her contributions to this field were reflected in her appointment as deputy director of the Department of Health Policy Research Unit on cancer awareness, screening and early diagnosis.
[10] This stimulated Wardle to set up a new population-based twin cohort to investigate diet, physical activity and weight from birth to 5 years.
(season 45, episode 8), a documentary which examined why some people manage to stay slim while the world is being affected by an obesity epidemic.
[citation needed] Wardle was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia at the age of 46, three months after taking over as director of a unit carrying out psychological research into the prevention of cancer.
She wrote with frankness about how she reacted to the diagnosis, which was left on her answering machine, and how she initially coped by regressing "to the 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' of my youth in the Sixties".
[21] She died from complications of the disease on 20 October 2015, almost 20 years after her diagnosis, survived by husband, Andrew Steptoe, her children, 3 grandchildren and her father Peter Wardle.