MasterChef winner kept her cancer a secret from judges: 'I didn’t want any sympathy. It wasn’t relevant'

Jane Devonshire has said she did not want to be defined by her ill health

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer ten years ago and went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy

The winner of MasterChef has revealed that she kept her cancer hidden from the programme’s judges because she wanted to win on the basis of merit rather than sympathy.

Jane Devonshire, 50, from Hampshire, said she did not want her ill health to have an impact on the judges verdict and she didn't want the illness to define her.

The mother-of-four impressed judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with a three course meal inspired by her childhood, coming first in the final shown on BBC One on Friday night.

“I wanted to be judged only on the cooking,” Devonshire told The Telegraph.

“Gregg and John didn’t know. I didn’t want any sympathy for the cancer. It wasn’t relevant,” she added.

“Surviving it has been a huge part of my life but at the same time I didn’t want it to be anything that anybody on the show would know about. There are so many people going through this but you are more than that. It is not who you are.”

Devonshire was first diagnosed with breast cancer ten years ago and went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Four years ago she was then diagnosed with secondary cancer which had moved to the liver. However following successful surgery, she is has now been in remission for three years.

Devonshire won with a menu of winkles and cockles on toast, curried lamb and rhubarb and custard. While Gregg said her starter was the best looking cockles and winkles dish he'd ever seen, John said he would be stealing her idea for adding lime shavings to her Indian lamb dish.