That Mr Usain Bolt and Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were the RJR Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awardees for 2015 came as no surprise.

Despite being well below peak condition, the awesome Mr Bolt still found the physical and mental strength to win all three gold medals available to him at the IAAF World Championship Games in Beijing, China, in August last year.

None who saw it will easily forget Mr Bolt’s dramatic victory in the 100 metres — a triumph many thought was out of the question, given his weak preparation and the perceived sharpness of his much-hyped lead opponent, Mr Justin Gatlin.

Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce concretised her status as arguably Jamaica’s leading female athlete of all time by winning two gold medals at the World Championships as well as the 100m Diamond League.

Yet, for many Jamaicans in 2015, not even Mr Bolt and Mrs Fraser-Pryce tugged as hard on emotions as did cancer survivor, Mrs Novlene Williams-Mills.

Readers will recall her extraordinary performance last August in Beijing on the anchor leg of the 4×400-metre relay. Getting the baton well behind the powerful American team, Mrs Williams-Mills reeled in and then ran past the highly rated American Ms Francena McCorory to hand gold to Jamaica.

It will go down among the finest performances in the rich annals of Jamaican track athletics. Quite understandably, Mrs Williams-Mills — who received the Chairman’s Award — and her relay teammates secured the People’s Choice for 2015 at that RJR-hosted ceremony a week ago.

All applauded Mrs Williams-Mills bravery and iron will in Beijing. Yet, if anything, she was even more courageous in 2012.

Back then, she won the 400m at Jamaica’s national trials in 50.60 seconds within days of being diagnosed with cancer. The Jamaica Observer of January 16 reminds us that a month later Mrs Williams-Mills went to the London Olympics and placed fifth before winning a bronze on the 4x400m relay team.

She followed up on all that by undergoing surgeries and the arduous, tortuous treatment which go hand in hand with cancer. All of that Mrs Williams-Mills had to go through, and yet she found it within her to return to the track, to the rigour of intense, painful training and competition; to overcome all adversity and rebound to being the successful athlete she is today.

No wonder then that she is now an ambassador, a poster lady in the fight against cancer and adversity.

Note her words: “So I know what it is like for families that have cancer, the financial burden, the many visits to the hospital and the surgical room — just about everything about the burden that it can take on a family.

“In the span of six months, I was in the operating room four times, and after coming out, I forget about what it did to my body, it was the mental part that I couldn’t deal with.”

Yet she dealt with it. Against all odds, Mrs Williams-Mills came out triumphant. What a magnificent example for us all.