Jenny-May Clarkson Finding Gratitude In Grief

The Sports Presenter Opens Up On The Losses Of Her Brother And Father

- Alice O’Connell

If you tuned into 1 News last year, chances are you watched along without any inkling that something was amiss. Ever the consummate professional, sports presenter Jenny-May Clarkson kept up with her job, barely missing a beat and still injecting a bit of humour into the show.

Looks were deceiving, though. Underneath, she was suffering.

Her big brother Jeffrey had been given the heartbreaking news that his bowel cancer was now terminal and in late July − two years after his first cancer diagnosis − Jenny-May was with him, holding his hand as he passed away.

Just as the family were coming to grips with Jeffrey’s death, they were dealt another blow when the broadcaster’s cherished dad, Te Waka, quietly passed just three-and-a-half months later from a heart attack − or, more likely, says Jenny-May, a broken heart.

Jeffrey was the second son that Waka and wife Paddy had buried. They lost a son Charles to meningitis when he was 10. Jenny-May, one of six children, was just six years old at the time.

“Losing two children, before you go, that’s just not right,” says Jenny-May, who is mum to three-year-old twin boys.

“I reflect on our kids and think, ‘How did Mum and Dad do that?’ Having to watch Jeffrey go through that journey and not being able to do anything for him – as a parent, that would be soul-destroying. They coped once, but I believe it was too much for Dad to go through again.”

Although Jenny-May (44) experienced the anguish of her brother Charles’ death, she was too young to fully understand the impact of it all. “Without doubt Charles’ death had a profound effect on me, but I walked alongside Jeff for a large part of his cancer journey and his death was more confronting, my first understanding of grief.”