Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MUM-TO-BE JO
WITH weeks left to live, Jo Kelly knew that marrying the man who adored her was the last gift of love she would give. She and Pete Ames had only been dating for six months but both knew they had found “the one”.
Then doctors said they were running out of ways to treat the blood cancer she’d been fighting for three years. And she would probably die within months.
“I was told I was out of treatment options,” says Jo. “All the doctors could offer me was palliative care.
“I pushed them for a timeframe and they told me it was unlikely I’d make it past Christmas. It was devastating. I wouldn’t reach my one-year anniversary with Pete.
“A few weeks later we were painting my bedroom and Pete burst into tears. He told me he didn’t want me to leave this world not being his wife.”
So the couple planned their big day in eight weeks and wed in an emotional ceremony surrounded by their family.
Eight years on, there is about to be a new addition to the Kelly-ames family – a daughter for Pete and Jo, both 33.
Against near-impossible odds, Jo beat her terminal cancer after doctors fought for pioneering drugs that kept her alive long enough for a stem cell transplant.
Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan then found the only registered donor in the world who was a genetic match.
Now Jo and Pete – who had beaten testicular cancer before they met – will welcome their baby girl later this month.
Jo says: “We feel so l ucky to be planning for a future we never thought we had. I wrote a thank-you letter to my donor but didn’t hear back. All I know is he was 23 and I think he had dark hair. Every time I read that letter I cry.
“We will write when our daughter arrives. We owe him everything – I wouldn’t be here without him.”
Jo, of Lichfield, Staffs, who works for the Arts Council, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 22, after a large lump appeared on her neck.
The disease can usually be cured with intensive chemotherapy and Jo gave up her job and moved in with her parents to focus on the treatment.
But she relapsed months later and over the next three years tried all available treatments.
Nothing worked... Instead, the cancer spread to her lungs and bones. The pain was so severe Jo began suffering fits.
She says: “When I was diagnosed, I felt like broken goods. I was a year out of university, embarking on my career and dating. I met Pete through a mutual friend, who told each of us what the other had been through.
“We really clicked. He got everything. We knew this was something special. But our hopes were dashed when the doctors said they’d run out of options.”
Pete proposed at his house, which he decorated with fairy