The new year has started in the best possible way for a ‘dying’ Exeter woman.
Jo Smith's health has improved dramatically since she flew to America for treatment.
The 37-year-old previously relied on a wheelchair but is now able to walk some distance unaided as this heart-warming picture shows. In another image she is seen playing outside with her five-year-old son Rudey.
Jo is believed to be the only known person in the world to suffer from a rare combination of two diseases – pulmonary hypertension and lymphatic cancer.
In my last blog I wrote about the worst part of my life that was living in fear. And it's true, it is. But it is also the smallest part of my life.
I don't have a lot of room for fear when all around me I have and experience the total opposite, Hope. Hope for a future that has me and Rudey in it.
I wouldn't say I'm the strongest person in the world or the most resilient but I have an ability to cope with whatever is thrown at me. This is not something I could achieve on my own though. I have quite a large gaggle of incredible people on my side that...
Generous friends, family and strangers have raised an incredible £62,000 for a dying Exeter mum - in a matter of weeks.
Jo Smith is currently travelling with her best friend Sarah Lacey to Arizona by sea and land in a desperate bid to find a cure for her two terminal conditions.
She needs £70,000 for the trip and her treatment and her YOUCARING site is now close to the target.
A friend of Jo told the Exeter Daily she would be bowled over by the amount raised.
The friend added: "The kindness of people who don't even know Jo has been incredible. This trip...
Dying mum Jo Smith has embarked on her 10-day trip to Arizona in a desperate bid to find a cure for her two terminal illnesses.
She is currently on a cruise liner with her best friend Sarah Lacey (pictured right) on the first leg of their journey.
Jo is so poorly, her doctor has banned her from flying.
Sarah, an Exeter-based music promoter, posted on Facebook: "I'm sat on my little bed on a very big boat with my best friend beside me, about to embark on our biggest mission yet.
"Thank you all so much for supporting Jo, this is going to be life changing,...
"Mummy I don't want you to die, I would miss you too much if you were a star.
"If the doctors can't make you better I may be able too, I'm a vet. Now sit down so that I can inspect you."(I think he meant examine)
"If you're tired mummy we can have a lovely play-cuddle together on the sofa under the duvet, that always makes you feel better."
It is the living in fear that is the worst. I am living in fear of leaving my only child, my beautiful little boy who has changed my life forever. My little boy who has shown me a love I never knew was possible, my joy, my...
Battling Exeter mum Jo Smith is to face yet another hurdle in her bid for treatment.
She now faces a 10-day trip to America for special tests after her doctor told her she wasn't fit enough to fly.
Mum of one Jo, will have to travel by ship and over land instead.
Jo is the only person in the world with two rare terminal conditions where treating one would mean the other will kill her.
The 37-year-old suffers from a blood vessel disorder called pulmonary hypertension and has lymphatic cancer. Baffled doctors say that the odds of suffering from both is over 5...
Doting Exeter mum Jo Smith is making a desperate appeal... to live.
The 37-year-old mum needs urgent help in raising funds to pay for treatment she hopes will extend the time she can spend with her five-year-old son.
In this heartfelt letter she appeals for your help:
My name is Jo. I am a 37 year old mummy from Exeter. I have lived here all of my life. But now I am dying. I am 1 in 7 billion, the only person in the world to suffer from a combination of two terminal diseases, Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Follicular Lymphoma.
An Exeter woman with two terminal illnesses has undergone a body scan on the advice of a mum whose daughter died of an inoperable brain tumour.
Jo Smith is now awaiting the results to see if there has been any change in her condition.
The 36-year-old was diagnosed with a rare heart and lung disease (pulmonary hypertension) almost a year after giving birth to her son Rudey, now aged three, and within months was told she had lymphatic cancer.
She is thought to be the only person in the world with both diseases.
Exeter mum Jo Smith, who is suffering from two terminal conditions, has made a heartbreaking decision to return from Thailand where she was promised pioneering treatment.
The 36-year-old was diagnosed with a rare heart and lung disease (pulmonary hypertension) almost a year after giving birth to her son Rudey, now aged three, and within months was told she had lymphatic cancer.
She is thought to be the only person in the world with both diseases.
Jo, a former Exeter College student, cannot undergo treatment for the cancer because of the risk to her heart and lungs...
