"Jo fought cancer battle with courage and dignity": Coventry DJ shares emotional journey on anniversary of wife's death

Jamie Payne said Jo, 52, first noticed that one of her nipples had inverted in 2021.

After contacting her GP she had a CT scan and discovered a tumour in her breast.

Jamie, 52, said: “We were optimistic that she would beat it, and up to a point, she did.”

The couple, who were inseparable after meeting 20 years ago, faced a long journey ahead of them.

Despite gruelling treatment, physical and emotional turmoil and endless hospital appointments, Jamie said his wife didn’t shed one tear.

Jo got the all clear and the couple started to look forward to a brighter future.

“A normal Saturday night for my wife and I involved wine, music, and dancing,” Jamie went on.

"We didn't have to go out; I'm a DJ, so we have a disco and karaoke in-house for our party requirements. One weekend, while crooning to Robbie Williams, Jo fell over. This wasn't unusual when she had taken a couple of glasses (bottles) of Pinot Grigio, but this time she couldn't get up. She wasn't that drunk, relatively speaking, so this puzzled me.

"In the morning I noticed her face had drooped on one side, so we rushed her to A&E.”

Just two months previously, she had been told that the radiotherapy, chemotherapy, mastectomy and other various treatments had been successful and the breast cancer was gone from her chest.

Jamie said: “We were told it had spread to her brain and three tumours were present. Incurable and a grim 12-month prognosis. Sadly the tumour had metastasised into her armpit and spread from there.

"This was a bitter pill to swallow. She had been so brave throughout her ordeal, and when she was told this news she shed a single tear – the only tear I ever saw during the whole terrible experience.”

Jo was offered and tried another chemotherapy.

"It knocked her sideways and she lost her mobility almost overnight,” Jamie went on.

"The hardest part of all of this was making the decision to have her admitted to Myton Hospice. She was very reluctant, obviously. I remember those last two weeks she spent there with mixed feelings. The care given was second to none, but watching the rapid decline of the person you love is tough.

"The person that you planned to retire with on a little piece of land with a few goats, chickens, and dogs, future holidays, spoiling the grandchildren - all of the above and more besides – was now gone.

“Her four-year battle with the dreaded ‘big C’ was lost.”

Although her prognosis was a year, Jo died six months later on May 8, 2024.

She was a devoted mother to her three daughters and two grandchildren.

Jamie said: “We buried Jo in natural woodland, under a cherry tree like the one in our garden, and this week marks the second anniversary of her passing.

"It will be tough, but I found talking therapy very helpful through the darkest days and was relieved to find you can get access to it through the NHS."

He said he misses the laughter, the connection and the companionship.

"It was like this….We knew every bad point about each other and still thought each other was awesome,” said Jamie.

"I'm being as strong as I can for her this week; she wouldn't have tolerated me being miserable, so if I have a little cry I will do it in secret so she can't be cross with me.”

Symptoms of breast cancer in women may include: a lump, or swelling in your breast, chest or armpit; a change in the skin of your breast, such as dimpling (may look like orange peel) or redness (may be harder to see on black or brown skin); a change in size or shape of 1 or both breasts; nipple discharge (if you are not pregnant or breastfeeding), which may have blood in it; a change in the shape or look of your nipple, such as it turning inwards (inverted nipple) or a rash on it (may look like eczema); pain in your breast or armpit which does not go away – breast pain that comes and goes is usually not a symptom of breast cancer.