A mum has been left devastated after being given 18 months to live following a misdiagnosis of a urinary tract infection (UTI).
Jo Fletcher-Cross, from Kentish Town in north London, now wants to give her 11-year-old daughter, Rowan, one last happy memory before her condition no longer allows her to travel.
The mum-of-one began experiencing symptoms around three months ago - which led to her diagnosis with Glioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord.
As the deadly diagnosis was revealed the former National Geographic journalist was tragically told she was unlikely to live beyond 12 to 18 months.
Jo told MyLondon : "It’s the same one that Tom Parker died from. You can treat it but it’s not curable."
Jo’s symptoms began in late June when she noticed whilst watching a film with her husband that she suddenly couldn't speak.
"I couldn’t get the words out - just nonsense came out. I could tell in my head what I wanted to say, but couldn’t get it out," she said.
Jo regained her speech functionality after about 15 minutes but she was concerned by the incident so went to A&E the next day.
A nurse initially told her doctors that she had urinary tract infection and was sent home with antibiotics to treat the infection.
However, Jo continued to feel "strange and not quite right" for several weeks and so decided to to get checked up again about four weeks later.
She said: "I had a friend round for dinner and found myself struggling trying to cook something I had made lots of times before."
Jo also noticed she was forgetting names, which gave her more reason to worry.
She added: "I was about to submit work for my MA in comedy writing which I had been doing via distance learning at Falmouth University. I spent a few days working very hard to finish that, submitted an hour before the deadline!
"The very next morning I got up, sat down at my desk to start work and I could not remember my computer password or how I could possibly get into it."
The mum-of-one went to A&E and said a doctor realised very quickly something was wrong.
Jo said: "I had a scan which showed ‘something’ on my brain, and after a few hours was admitted to hospital for a week, during which more tests confirmed a brain tumour.
"I then had surgery to remove it about three weeks later which confirmed I had a grade four glioblastoma.
"They have removed almost all of the tumour but it will grow back, which is why this particular tumour is always fatal."
The "bleak" and "fairly grim" diagnosis has not stopped Jo, however, as she continues to perform stand-up comedy on the side.
"If I’m still here after that my colleagues will probably start asking ‘why are you still here?’” she joked.
“A lot of people are like ‘oh you’re so brave’, but what else can you do? There’s not really much choice. You don’t want to spend too much time being miserable.”
She now wants to spend the rest of the time she has doing her favourite things with the people she loves the most.
Her and her family plan to travel one last time before it is too late.
Having already had a tumour surgically removed from her brain, Jo is set to undergo radiotherapy.
She will then have a month off in December before she starts six months of chemotherapy.
During the month off, Jo plans to go abroad before her travel insurance increases.
Her final wish is to take her daughter to Disneyland, Paris, and looks forward to having a “ great time”.
She said: “When I was first told I was immediately like ‘well, I’d quite like to get out of the country’.
"The big thing is my husband and I just wanted to create lots of memories for our daughter and just show her things and do as much as we can together.”
Jo’s daughter is aware of her mothers situation and knows why they are going on the trip.
“She’s a great kid. Telling her obviously wasn’t the greatest day but we took her out to eat lots of ice-cream afterwards” she said.
Jo’s friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for her last trip and other fun activities over the coming months.
