Sky Sports presenter Jo Wilson says she’s been inundated with messages from new mothers who say they’ve put off having smear tests – after she revealed that she has stage 3 cervical cancer and is undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
The 37-year-old mother-of-one, who has hosted programmes on the sports network since 2015, went for a routine smear test in June and was told there were signs of cancer. Further tests a month later showed Wilson had 3b cervical cancer that had spread to two of her lymph nodes.
Since going public about her health, the presenter, who lives in the Cotswolds with her partner of six years Dan and 23-month old daughter Mabel, says she’s had ‘so many’ messages from new mothers who’ve put off their smears after giving birth.
The Sky Sports News presenter, 37, revealed this week that a routine smear test had found abnormal cells and follow-up tests saw her diagnosed with stage 3 cancer
The mother-of-one is undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment at present with her final treatment happening this week
The mum had always been up to date with her own smear tests but was last due while pregnant with Mabel in September 2020 – and after a traumatic delivery delayed her test as she was scared of being ‘prodded’ until June this year.
When she did go and see a doctor, the cancer had taken hold.
Writing on Instagram, Wilson, who is undergoing her final week of treatment, urged women to have a smear test if they’re due one, telling her followers that although she found it difficult to be so open about her own cancer, she wanted to encourage others to take action.
She wrote: ‘The hardest thing to go through, and difficult for me to open up about but September is gynaecological cancer awareness month so sharing my story in the hope that it can do exactly that.’
A message shared by Wilson that she’d received from a new mother who said they’d been putting off their smear test after having a baby
In an Instagram story today, she shared the messages of support she’s received, saying: ‘So many messages from new mammas who have been putting off their smears – exactly why I wanted to speak out.’
Speaking to OK! magazine about being told she had cancer, she said she broke down in tears and asked doctors if she was going to die.
‘I cried while a lovely nurse held my hand,’ she said. ‘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.
Sky Sports presenter Jo Wilson has revealed she is battling cervical cancer and is undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment
Wilson, 37, is a regular face on Sky Sports News and has presented on the channel since 2015
She lives in the Cotswolds with her partner of six years Dan and 23-month old daughter Mabel
‘I said to the doctor “Am I going to die?”
‘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 per cent success rate for this treatment.
‘So I’ll take that. But you do still think about the fact there’s a 30 per cent 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.’
Wilson with her one-year-old daughter Mabel in a picture posted on her Instagram account
She said the lack of control can be difficult, but is remaining positive and trying to live in the present
Wilson asked doctors if she was going to die after being given the diagnosis in the summer
Speaking out during Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month 2022, she added: ‘I try to believe everything else is in my favour, my age and I am fit. I must hang on to the positives.
‘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.’
Wilson became a sub-editor and then a co-producer before making her screen debut on the channel in 2015
The mum is speaking out about her diagnosis to help others as she does not want others to go through what she has been through
Wilson said after TV personality Jade Goody’s death of cervical cancer in 2009 more women went for smear tests, but now said one in three women who are eligible do not go.
She said she wants to change that and is speaking out about her own experience to try and help others.
Wilson’s diary is now filled with hospital appointments and she has lost a stone since she was diagnosed, but she remains optimistic and is focusing on the positives.
Wilson, who hails from Perth in Scotland, graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with a Masters in journalism in 2011, beginning as a graduate trainee at Sky Sports News that same year.
She later became a sub-editor and then a co-producer before making her screen debut on the channel in 2015.
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