Jean was born in the Kat River Valley in the Eastern Cape in 1943. She studied to become a Professional Nurse. She got married to a British Cruise Officer, Keith Underwood. She spent 22 years in the UK, raising a daughter, got divorced and continued to become an ICU Sister and Head of Trauma. During this period, she identified as a Buddhist.

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In 1990, Jean repatriated with her daughter, Analise to South Africa. She was employed as an ICU and Infection Control Sister at Green Acres Hospital in Port Elizabeth. At an Anglican Church service that year, Jean experienced a Pauline conversion, which changed the whole direction of her live. Revd Howard Lancaster, who witnessed this conversion advised Jean to study theology. Jean started her studies at the Theological Education by Extension (T.E.E.), she was ordained as a Deacon and then as a Priest in the Anglican Diocese of Port Elizabeth.

In 1995, Jean was asked by the Anglican Diocese of Port Elizabeth to become the Matron and Chaplain of the newly established The House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. This was in a period in South Africa when HIV/AIDS raged across the country, with no drugs available. Jean resigned her well-paid job, and she started her missionary work, as a self-supporting priest. The story of the Haven is mostly about the palliative care of stage 4 AIDS babies and how they were cared for, not with medication and drugs that Jean as an experienced ICU sister would use, but with hygiene, diet, love and spiritual care. The improvement of these babies’ health was seen as nothing short of a miracle. But, in 2001 the Board of Directors informed Jean that the constitution of the Haven, required her to resign at the age of 58. Jean was devastated but accepted that God will lead the way. The Haven is still functioning as a Children’s Haven today.

In 2002, Jean was invited to join the All Saints United Church in Somerset East as an assistant reverend, again in a self-supporting capacity. She carried on with her ministry amongst the poor, the sick and the rejected. She was approached by the Hospice Palliative Care of South Africa (HPCA) to start a Hospice in the area. Thus, she started the Blue Crane Hospice in Somerset East from ground zero. She established the Blue Crane Hospice, which is still there today, as a beacon of hope. Without every knowing the reason, her licence as a priest at All Saints was revoked in 2008. She was not allowed to either officiate in the church or attend the All Saints Church as a parishioner. She could only officiate in the Xhosa church. Jean left the Anglican Church with great sadness. She found her Christian fellowship in the Dutch Reformed Church. At the age of 69 she returned to Gqeberha. In 2023, she was nominated by the Dutch Reformed Modaramen of the Eastern Cape to attend the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in October that year. At 81 years of age, she continues today to live her life in faith.