Sandra Lee

Jane Flemming had her 'first jab' in early April to protect against the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed almost 3 million lives around the world and had a massive impact on life as we once knew and loved.

And in true Flemming fashion — which is to say, ebullient, resilient and super-positive — she’s bounced back with no side effects.

That Jane was so keen to get the jab is no surprise, especially given her terrifying bout with breast cancer in 2017, from which she made a full recovery, and her decades long dedication to fitness, sport, and health-related charities including the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, of which she is a board member.

The former two-time Olympian and double Commonwealth Games gold medallist had never heard of Humpty when, out of the blue one day in 1997, she got a telephone call from the foundation’s founder Paul Francis to invite her to a fundraising tennis event at Love’n Deuce, on the North Shore of Sydney NSW. Paul had only started the charity a few years earlier and was running it out of a tiny room in the tennis centre that he had started decades earlier.

which I’m more than happy to do because I really believe in the vaccines,” Jane says less than 24 hours after rolling up her sleeve for, arguably, one of the most important vaccines created in recent decades.

“I grabbed a friend, went along and we had a fantastic time. I even drew the raffle tickets and my girlfriend won a prize,” she says with a laugh, adding it was not rigged!

“I saw what the charity was doing, and that really resonated with me, but what also resonated was how Paul operated. He was eternally grateful, and as anyone who has ever dealt with the charity knows, that’s Paul. Essentially, Paul’s passion has created longevity for Humpty and loyalty for those who get involved.”

Soon after, Jane was helping out at Humpty events, including spotting at fundraising auctions and encouraging her running buddies to join the Humpty Dumpty Balmoral Burn. The Burn, which began in 2001, has helped raise more than $30 million to buy essential and often life-saving medical equipment for neonatal and children’s wards in more than 440 hospitals and health services around Australia.

Started by Australian rugby legend Phil Kearns AM, the Balmoral Burn was due to celebrate its 20th anniversary last year, but sadly like so many events in the time of COVID-19, it was cancelled.

“I would do whatever Paul asked me to do to help, absolutely anything I could do to help,” she says.

And pitching in is a Flemming family affair. Jane’s husband Ian Purchas, and their 12-year-old twin boys are regulars at Humpty events. Her boys Sam and Jim have a particularly strong connection with the charity.

“Jimmy was born weighing only 1.5kgs and was then put into a special care unit. They were both in the unit together as doctors don’t like to separate twins.

“The first time they were allowed out of the hospital, they were only allowed out for four hours and it was on the day of the Balmoral Burn, so we drove over and picked them up and went to the Burn,” she says. “And they have been going every year since. We don’t play rugby on that Sunday, but we do do the Burn.”