Doctors gave me a month to live when we wed... 8 years on I’m free of cancer and having a baby

Jo her doctors had been given permission to give her a new drug, Brentuximab Vedotin, on compassionate grounds.

It stopped the cancer progressing so well the NHS agreed to fund it for other patients, including 10 who went into remission and had life-saving stem cell transplants.

Another drug Bendamustine, which is still not widely available on the NHS, sent Jo’s cancer into remission and she was able to have a transplant.

Jo says: “A year before my transplant we checked the donor register and there were no matches. By the time I was ready there was one.

“We were terrified he might not want to go through with it. We couldn’t speak to him directly but, thanks to Anthony Nolan, everything fell into place.” Jo spent a month in hospital during the London Olympics in 2012 as her body was blasted with chemotherapy to wipe away the cancer, her bone marrow and her white blood cells to try to stop her body rejecting the transplant.

Pete, a business consultant, says: “The worst moments were sitting at home after leaving Jo at the hospital, eating dinner at 11pm and thinking, ‘If the transplant doesn’t work, this is what’s left. Our bed felt so empty. There were a lot of tears.”

The nightmare nearly became a reality...

Jo says: “You are pushed very close to death during the transplant. You are being sustained by blood transfusions. There was one night where I felt something give way in my body. I hit rock bottom. I knew if I chose, I could pass away quietly. But underneath that was another thought, ‘No, push through one more night.’ I had to keep trying for Pete and my parents. The next day my blood counts started to rise ever so slowly.”

Recovery was tough. Jo suffered graft versus host disease, which can be fatal, as her body struggled to accept the transplant.

It was 12 months before she was able

Frail but wedding was full of love

GIFT Overjoyed at their impending parenthood