A WOMAN who was told she would never walk again has defied the odds by becoming a world champion bodybuilder.

When Jo Morrison was 26 she was diagnosed with advanced aggressive cervical cancer and later suffered a brain tumour, meaning she lost the ability to walk.

But Jo, who lives in Brighton, taught herself to get back on her feet.

Not satisfied with that, she  took her fitness to a whole new level  – and has now won the Pure Elite World Championships Female Transformation Category.

Jo, from Seven Dials, Brighton, said: “I just went to the doctors because I wasn’t feeling well and he recommended a consultant so I knew it was serious.

“It had to be treated immediately, and the experience really changed my life.”

The treatment caused her to have an early menopause and meant she was unable to have children, but she was able to beat the disease.

Jo, now 54, was an Army physical training instructor at the time.

She said: “I definitely think being fit helped with my recovery, but my body was badly damaged from the inside out because of the radiation treatment.

“It was awful, and the emotional effects it had on me were the worst, so it took a long time to recover.”

After winning that cancer battle in the 1990s she was diagnosed again ten years ago.
In 2008 she visited the doctor to ask about a mole on her leg. 

She was told it was skin cancer and she had to have a large part of her thigh removed to get rid of it.

Then less than three months later, while still recovering from that operation, she learned that she had a large brain tumour.

Jo said: “I woke up one morning with a terrible headache that would not go away and I couldn’t get out of bed.

“I went to the doctor and they said that I had to have it removed or I would die.”

The emergency brain surgery caused her to suffer from epilepsy as well as severe problems to her left-sided mobility and balance.

This also caused her to put on three stone in three months.

She said: “When I woke up I couldn’t walk and I was told that I might not walk again.

“It was devastating. I was an athlete and now I couldn’t walk, but I decided to act positively about it and began learning to stand up, walk and live again.”

It took Jo two years to be able to walk without the help of sticks.

She said: “I fell over a lot because my brain didn’t know how to correct itself and I couldn’t feel my leg.

“I was trapped in a body I didn’t know and I was lonely, scared and angry.

“I wondered ‘why me, why do I get sick?’ but there is no point fighting with yourself as it only causes more pain.

“What you can do is change.”

“Before I had felt that, as long as my body was strong and fit, I can overcome anything.
“But after brain surgery you are almost stripped bare and it leaves you vulnerable.”
In the following years, she continued to work hard to regain her confidence and ability to move, saying she came to treat it as a “full-time job”.
Three years ago, she moved to Brighton from London for her work  – but lost two jobs in the space of two years.

She said: “After that, I knew I had to go back to what I loved which is sport.

“I had not felt strong enough to get back into it for a long time, but now I knew I had to.”

She became a health coach to help others who were going through significant changes in their lives, just as she had, to live a healthy lifestyle.

While working in this field, a friend recommended a 30 day “cleanse programme” in which plant based supplements are used.

She said the results were so successful that the same friend then suggested that she entered a bodybuilding competition.

Jo, now a health coach, is known as Juicy Jo to her friends because of her love of making and drinking juice drinks. 

Jo won the Pure Elite World Championships Female Transformation Category in Margate, Kent on November 10.

She said: “It’s an international competition, so people come from all over the world to take part.”

“I didn’t expect to win so when I did I was shocked, it was an incredible feeling.

“Walking on stage in high heels was still a challenge for me as I have to be careful I don’t fall.

“I also had to be aware of my epilepsy when putting my body under high levels of stress.

But, I’m a great believer in leading by example so I wanted to show my clients that if I can do it so can they.

“A journey can take a week, a month, a year or more, but it can be done, you’ve just got to keep focused and keep going.”