A YOUNG mother from East Yorkshire, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only 28, is celebrating her survival by taking part in this Sunday’s Great North Run.

Jo Hawkett, who is now 30, graduated from university with a first class law degree in 2004 before taking time out to have her two sons, Jake and Sam, with her husband Paul, an engineer.

In September 2007, she was just about to start a postgraduate law course at the University of York when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she needed urgent treatment.

“A cancer diagnosis is terrible, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of anything – it can be the start of something new,” she said.

“Anything is achievable – if my body can get me through cancer, it can get me round 13.1 miles!”

She had surgery to remove a lump in her armpit and four lymph nodes and then underwent gruelling courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

“These months were the most painful of my life,” she said. “On the day before I took Jake for his first pre-school session, my lovely long hair that went right down to my waist all fell out. “The steroids made me gain three stones and I was tired and weary. I didn’t feel like a vibrant 30-year-old any more – I felt like an old woman.”

But Jo, who lives in Market Weighton, decided to get back to fitness by going running, with advice from her Army brother Ben.

She has already tackled the York Race For Life and the Jane Tomlinson York 10km Run, and has also jumped out of a plane to do a 13,000 feet skydive. Jo and Ben will be part of Cancer Research UK’s team of over 2,500 runners, who together aim to raise more than £1million to help beat the disease.

To sponsor Jo and Ben, log onto their fundraising page at runningsponsorme.org/joandben