A successful corporate career, a beautiful family, and a brand-new BMW. On the surface, it seemed like Gemma Lonsdale had it all.
But, sitting in her "dream car", the Gateshead mum broke into tears as the devastating news hit her - she had breast cancer. At the age of just 36, the shock diagnosis in 2018 left Gemma reassessing her life choices and set her on a path to seeking spiritual guidance.
"When I was younger I was always very intuitive, even in the workplace," Gemma told ChronicleLive.
"I used to work as a recruiter and a headhunter and I always seemed to know who was getting the job even before the interviews would happen, but I never considered myself a psychic. I just thought I was good with people.
"Then I had a traumatic period in my life when I had a number of significant life events in a short space of time. Me and my husband decided to separate, I was moving house and then I found out I had cancer.
"That sent me on a soul-searching exercise. I was in the corporate sector but wasn't feeling fulfilled anymore. When I had breast cancer I was wondering if I was even going to live."
After visiting a spiritualist church, Gemma began using tarot cards and said she felt "drawn to spirituality".
"Then weird things started happening, it was as if the universe was lining up so that everything would fall into place for me," she said.
During this time, Gemma had undergone gruelling radiotherapy treatment, but just over a year later she was told the devastating news her cancer had returned. Gemma underwent a mastectomy and in 2021 was given the all-clear.
Throughout her treatment, Gemma had been practicing her medium skills and decided to leave her corporate job in software sales and launch a full-time career as a medium in a bid to help other people.
The 39-year-old began doing readings on her TikTok channel and, as her predictions came true, people from around the world began to reach out for private guidance.
"One girl contacted me through Facebook and asked me what was coming up in her relationship," Gemma said.
"She was around 21 and had a partner and a baby who was around a year old. She was smiling and I thought she was hoping for maybe a proposal but I was being told that he had been cheating on her.
"I told her that and she said, 'I actually thought he possibly had been.' I had actually been told the colour of the girl's hair, so I knew she had really dark hair. He actually ended up confessing to her a few days later."
Gemma, who lives in Low Fell, now has more than 31,000 followers on TikTok and clients around the world, with 46% of her customers in the US and the rest in the UK, Ireland and Australia. She offers readings on Zoom or over email, with prices ranging from £12 to £110.
"Some people will come to me asking me to connect with someone who has passed on and from there I can bring information through as well as support and evidence that their person is still there even if they are not there in physical world," Gemma said.
"A large portion of it is people seeking guidance and information on their own life path and choices. They want information on what is coming up, where their life is headed, what is going to happen in their relationship.
"People want reassurance or upliftment or people having a hard time and want to know if there is light at the end of the tunnel."
Gemma said that she is able to connect with energy from the spirit realm and bring information through and said she hears words, sees symbols or images and feels energy and emotion during her readings.
"It can sometimes be the silliest things that make a big difference," she said.
"When I do a mediumship reading I can get the most bizarre information through that doesn't mean a lot to me but means a lot to them.
"I had connected to a woman's partner in spirit and he was sitting behind her with a set of horse reigns and I told her what I had seen and she started laughing and said, 'he always called me horse.' That was her nickname."
As well as discovering cheating partners, and connecting with dead loved ones, Gemma has also been able to use her gift to discover health issues for her clients.
"I had a lady from the US who came for a pregnancy reading and I was seeing there was an issue that was preventing her from conceiving and that it hadn't been diagnosed yet," she said.
"She was adamant they had both been checked over and there were no medical issues but I being told was that closer inspection was required. She then came back to me [after the reading] to say she'd just recovered from surgery and explained what had been uncovered."
Uncovering health issues has even extended to people's pets, as Gemma explained: "I had a lady whose dog wasn't very well and I told her he was diabetic. When his health went downhill the following few days, the vet agreed to check his bloods and his glucose levels were through the roof so she was able to confirm diabetes and get him on medication."
Gemma, who also offers life advice on her podcast, 'The Happy Psychic,’ is now set to put on an event at The Common Room in Newcastle on September 8 as part of a UK tour.
Tickets to the 'night of mediumship, spiritual guidance and future visions' can be bought here. See Gemma Lonsdale's readings on TikTok here.
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