TV presenter Jo Wilson urged women to get their routine smears after revealing she has cervical cancer. The 37-year-old hopes, by opening up about her battle, she may help save others.
As exclusively reported by OK! magazine, the Sky Sports star was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer this summer. The Scottish mum of one, who has worked for Sky Sports News since 2011 is undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
After moving from London in 2020, Jo and husband Dan, 42, had been looking forward to raising daughter Mabel in their idyllic Cotswolds village. But when Jo went for a smear test this June, the gynaecologist immediately spotted the signs of cancer.
By July, further tests confirmed the presenter had stage 3b cervical cancer, with the disease having spread to two of her lymph nodes. “I cried while a lovely nurse held my hand,” she told OK.
“Then I cried to Dan, and he was quite shocked because he didn’t really think it would be cancer. You're desperately hoping there's a chance it might not be.”
Jo had always kept up to date with her smear tests. But after a traumatic forceps delivery with her daughter Mabel in September 2020, from which they both caught sepsis, she delayed going for a smear as she feared “being prodded down there.”
By the time she saw a doctor the cancer had taken hold. “I said to the doctor ‘Am I going to die?’” said Jo, who turns 38 on September 25.
“‘You're not going to die,’ he reassured me. ‘It's very treatable, and it's very curable.’ I try to hold onto that, but there are no guarantees.
"The percentages are still a bit ropey. There's something like a 70% success rate for this treatment. So I'll take that. But you do still think about the fact there's a 30% chance it won't work.
“The lack of control can be quite difficult, because the treatment will either work or it won’t. I’m trying to live in the present and get this through.
“The last person in the public eye with cervical cancer was Jade Goody. After Jade’s death, more women went for smear tests, but now one in three who are eligible don’t go. I really want to change that.
“If I can save just one other life by being open about my battle then it’s worth speaking out.”
In a weekly planner in which Jo used to write her work shifts, she now fills it with her hospital appointments which she then ticks off after each session. She is tired and has lost a stone since the diagnosis but remains optimistic about the outcome.
“I try to believe everything else is in my favour, my age and I am fit. I must hang on to the positives," she said.
“It’s terrifying to think I could have put it off even longer. Cervical cancer can be quite slow growing. But it’s different for everybody. I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I am right now.”
This September is Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month 2022. Jo’s Trust is the UK’s leading cervical cancer charity. For more information about cervical cancer see the website, there is also a helpline 0808 802 8000.
