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Sky Sports’ Jo Wilson diagnosed with cervical cancer at 37

She has begun chemo and radiotherapy treatment

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 5th September 2022

Sky Sports host Jo Wilson has been diagnosed with stage 3b cervical cancer at the age of 37.

The Scottish presenter announced the news in an exclusive with OK! Magazine, revealing she broke down in tears when she was given the diagnosis.

She revealed to the outlet how she went for a smear test back in June and doctors immediately found signs of cancer.

Turning 38 at the end of the month, Wilson is now undergoing a six-week treatment plan and says her gynaecologist insisted the condition is ‘very treatable and very curable’.

Jo Wilson has been with Sky Sports since 2015 and became a presenter in 2015, left Sky’s busy London hub back in 2020 to focus on family life.

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She regularly covers the likes of Scottish rugby, Scottish football the transfer window and was part of Sky’s Euro 2020 broadcast 2020.

Having given birth to her daughter back in 2020, the broadcaster said: “I cried while a lovely nurse held my hand, then I cried to Dan” – her partner of six years – adding: “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.”

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Part of the shock, she says, was due to the fact she has always been ‘fit and healthy’ throughout her life. However, as she explained to OK!, she put off her previous smear test after a complicated and traumatic forceps delivery.

Worse still, she detailed how she and her two-year-old daughter Mabel caught sepsis following the birth and, as a result, she feared ‘being prodded down there’ any time again soon.

Wilson says her biggest fear is the possibility of ‘leaving her toddler motherless’ and despite a ’70 per cent success rate’, she recognises it’s ‘different for everybody’.

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Hoping to raise awareness as part of Gynaecological Cancer Awareness month, she is urging others to be proactive, imploring women to “Get your smear, I missed mine”.

We wish her all the best.

Featured image: Sky Sports

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Greater Manchester public urged to help get people ‘off the streets and on their feet’ before Christmas

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Locals are being urged to help get hundreds of people “off the streets and back on their feet” this festive season.

As the temperatures told colder by the day, and Christmas creeps closer and closer, Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity is bringing back ‘1000 Beds for Christmas’, and the massively-important initiative is aiming to provide 1,000 nights of accommodation to people at risk of homelessness before the big day arrives.

Forming part of the ongoing ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme, this festive fundraising mission is designed to provide food, shelter, warmth, and dedicated vital wrap-around support for those who need it most.

The charity says it wants to build on the “incredible success of 2023”, which raised more than £55,000 and provided 1,800 nights of accommodation.

Stockport-based property finance specialists, Together – which has supported the campaign for the last two years – has, once again, generously pledged to match every public donation for the first £20,000 raised.  

Unfamiliar with the ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme? Since 2017, when rough sleeping peaked, the initiative has helped ensure a significantly-higher rate of reduction in the numbers of people facing a night on streets in Greater Manchester than seen nationally.

The landmark scheme has given people the chance to rebuild their lives, while also giving them access to key services and opportunities that allows them to stay off the streets for good.

Despite the scheme’s recent success, organisations across Greater Manchester are under “a huge amount of pressure” to meet the demand for their services this winter, and given the current economic outlook, household budgets will continue to be squeezed – leaving people on the sharp end of inequality and poverty.

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“Help us be a lifeline to organisations on the frontline,” Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity urged in it’s public appeal for donations.

You can help make sure ‘A Bed Every Night’ is a reality for all by donating here.

Featured Image – EthelRedThePetrolHead (via Flickr)

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Former Manchester police officer jailed after sexually assaulting a child while on duty

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A former Manchester police officer has been jailed after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child while he was on duty.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) explained that, on 29 December 2023, Dean Dempster was one of three officers responding to a domestic incident involving an adult and children, and it was while he was taking an account from a six-year-old girl, away from his colleagues, that he sexually abused her when he should have been there to protect her.

After GMP investigated a complaint received later that evening in relation to the incident, Dempster was immediately confronted by his supervisor when he returned to duty the next morning. 

The 35-year-old was arrested that day by officers in Oldham, and then “relentlessly pursued” by GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate to “explore any further evidence of offending” in an investigation directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

A review of Dempster’s electronic devices revealed “further serious offending”, GMP revealed, including the making of indecent images of children.

Sadly, the police investigation also found images on Dempster’s mobile phone taken from his body-worn video camera at the incident in December 2023 of a second clothed child, and of another clothed child at a separate incident dating back to 2022 – with the victims of both families having been made aware, and kept updated throughout the investigation

Dempster was convicted and sacked “at the earliest legal opportunity” by the Chief Constable at an accelerated misconduct hearing in May this year, and he has since admitted six counts of making indecent images, and two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.

After pleading guilty, the former officer has now been jailed for nine years, and has also been ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

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Deputy Chief Constable, Terry Woods, said Dempster “represents the very worst of society”.

“He is not a police officer, he is a child sex offender, a criminal, and he has no right to be near police uniform or serve the public,” DCC added. “Dempster was rightfully arrested and charged before he could ever work in our communities again.”

Featured Image – GMP

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