In June of 2011 Jo, who was 39 at the time, noticed that she had significant breast pain and visited her doctors to find the cause. She was referred for a mammogram and went on to have a biopsy. The tests showed an increase calcification in the breast and she was advised to keep an eye out for any further changes. The following April Jo detected a hard pea sized lump in her breast and the pain returned to the area. Unfortunately further tests confirmed that she had breast cancer.
Within 6 weeks of the diagnosis Jo had her breast removed and underwent a grueling series of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was advised to delay any reconstruction surgery to allow the radiotherapy to have a greater chance of working. Jo then pressed the NHS to have family history tests as her Auntie Pauline had sadly died in 1983 of breast cancer at the age of just 31. She was told that you could only have the family test if two or more women in your family have been diagnosed with cancer. Undeterred by this she pressed the department to carry out the test, which they eventually agreed to do. Four months later the results showed that she carries an inherited gene mutation called Chek2, which increases a persons chances of breast and skin cancer. The following January Jo discovered a mole that was confirmed to be skin cancer.
Throughout this worrying time Jo continued to play netball for her team Optimus, which she had enjoyed since childhood and when her friend mentioned on Facebook that she was going to play rounders she was reminded of how much she had enjoyed that sport too. In 2013 she joined her friend at a local school in Burnley where 18 women got together to play rounders. 8 weeks later the friends found that they loved playing so much that they would set up their own league with help from Burnley Leisure. Interest in the sport grew as word got around and there are now 608 women in the league, with Jo joining the Scruples Rounders Team in the Burnley Rounders Club League twice a week.
Whilst playing for the team they heard about the This Girl Can national campaign that was being set up by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. The campaign is a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets. So Jo and some of the team decided to go along to the casting and find out more about it. She was recovering from surgery at the time after having another mole removed but she joined the team all dressed in their bright orange kit for the casting. Over 200 women turned up and each person was interviewed to camera. Jo was asked what her favourite body part was and she replied ‘my breasts’. The interviewers smiled at her and asked why, so she told them about her breast cancer journey and how an amazing consultant in Bradford had reconstructed her breasts. Jo had been told by specialists that she had a 60% chance of getting breast cancer returning in her other breast so had decided to undergo a ten hour surgery to remove that breast and reconstruct them both at the same time. The procedure, which is called a DIEP Flap Reconstruction is where an incision is made along your bikini line and a portion of skin, fat, and blood vessels is taken from the lower half of your belly, moved up to your chest, and formed into a breast shape. The tiny blood vessels in the flap, which will feed the tissue of the new breast, are then matched to blood vessels in the chest and carefully reattached under a microscope. The nipple is removed as it can carry cancer cells.
Not surprisingly Sport England were inspired by Jo’s story and she was chosen as one of their key people in the This Girl Can campaign. The campaign has been a huge success with 4,000 posters around the country. Jo, whose rounders nickname is ‘Balders’ became a twitter sensation as both Rounders England and Burnley Rounders Club started a campaign called #wheresbalders where people were invited to take a photo of themselves with the poster featuring Jo and tag the post. Marks and Spencers caught sight of the campaign and invited Jo to model for their new leisurewear range which was in 10 flagship stores. A percentage of the profits from this range was donated to Sport England and Breast Cancer Now.
Jo was then asked to be the Chair Woman at Burnley Rounders Club and when she saw a vacancy at Rounders England she decided to apply for that too. She was given a Skype interview and offered the role of Non-Executive Director of Commercial and Marketing on the governing body. Not wanting to miss out on her unique skillset Burnley Leisure also made her a Trustee on the board. TV and magazine interviews followed from Sky News, BBC News and numerous local newspapers and magazines making Jo a familiar face in her hometown.
Jo is particularly pleased that her story has raised awareness both of breast cancer and of women in sport. She still has to have further surgery in November but life is filled with family and sport, which is her perfect combination. She encourages anyone who is thinking about joining a team to go for it as it has given her life a whole new direction and widened both her friendship circle and her opportunities.
To find out more about This Girl Can click here:
To find out more about Rounders England click here:
http://www.roundersengland.co.uk
To find out more about Sport England click here:
To find out more about Burnley Leisure click here:
http://burnleyleisure.co.uk/activity/rounders/
To find out more about Breast Cancer Now click here:
To find out more about Women’s Sport Week click here:
