ABOUT ME
Hello, I’m Jo and this is where you can get to know my background, what drives me and my vision for living life as fully as possible while knowing that my time could be limited.
I live in rural South Devon, between Dartmoor and the sea, with my partner and our little cat. In December 2018 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and our happy life in the countryside was turned upside down. After a year of tough treatment and even tougher side effects, I was declared cancer-free. And so life resumed, until November 2024 when I received the shocking news that the cancer had returned. I am told it can be managed for an unspecified period of time, but not cured. Facing the seriousness and uncertainty of a stage 4 cancer diagnosis threw a harsh light on my life.
How was I using my time on this earth and why? How could I best use whatever time remains for me? How do I make this time meaningful? How do I live fully while accepting the grief and fear of a terminal diagnosis? Where could I go to discuss the emotional and spiritual aspects of a life where my own mortality was very much in view? Where are the communities for those with life limiting diagnoses to discuss the issues and concerns that this phase of life entails?
These and many more questions have led me to this place, and to offer my services to our community
I have a background in complementary therapy and bodywork, being a qualified massage therapist and Bowen Therapist. I’ve also spent almost 20 years in a caring role, being primary carer for both my parents and my aunt. While my dad
Bill died in 2013, my dear mum Christine only passed in January 2025. I had the honour of sitting in vigil with her during her last weeks of life, an extraordinarily rich and sorrowful time which has shaped my outlook on how we reclaim
our relationship with death and dying.
I have been training as an end of life companion (or soul midwife/death doula). Working this path while supporting my mum through her final months and days, and simultaneously dealing with my own life limiting diagnosis, has I hope,
brought depth, compassion, openness and maturity to my approach. Death is coming to all of us, however some of us get to walk towards it with the gift of knowing and this is part of what I want to share with people.
I want this work to be as inclusive and accessible as possible, available to all human beings regardless of gender identity, sexuality, race, faith or heritage. After all, death itself is completely non-discriminatory and wholly inclusive. No one here gets out alive!
My aim is to be of service to both individuals and the community. To assist with the practical, emotional and spiritual elements of walking the end-of-life path, to de-stigmatise this phase of life and seek to remove the fog of fear that surrounds the subject. For our ancestors, wherever we come from, death was an intrinsic part of life. It was just one part of the cycle of being – we are born, we live, and at some stage we all return to the great Mystery via death. I aim to hold a space where people can discuss the issues arising at end of life or from receiving a life limiting diagnosis. If we can learn to live these precious days without fear or dread, present to the beauty everywhere in life, then we are living fully, for however long that might be for each of us, a precious gift in a world of distraction, busy-ness and fear.