Mother with history of using sunbeds dies from skin cancer

Jo Grassby, 38, was a habitual user of tanning booths in her teens which resulted in her having a cancerous mole removed from her back when she was 33.

She was given the all-clear, but while enjoying a break with husband Dave and her three children in April she complained of crippling back pain.

Days later doctors told the hospital administrator from York the skin cancer was terminal as it had spread to her lungs and spleen.

Her condition worsened in the early hours of Sunday and she was taken to St James’s Hospital in Leeds, where she died with her family at her bedside just weeks after the terminal diagnosis.

Poignantly, her own mother had died of cancer also aged 38.

She had been on holiday in Great Yarmouth with her husband and their sons Ellis, seven, and five-year-old Connor, along with her 11-year-old daughter Beth Watson. She also had two stepchildren – Amber, 13, and 11-year-old Leah.

Sarah Watson, 28, Mrs Grassby’s stepdaughter from her first marriage, paid tribute to the “fun-loving” mum who “doted” on her children and warned about the dangers of using sunbeds.

Ms Watson said: “After Jo was told she had terminal cancer she was very determined, she had a fighting spirit.

“She wanted to raise awareness of the deadly dangers of sunbeds and raise awareness for Cancer Research. At the hospital her children came to sit with her and Dave was by her bedside when she died at tea time. She just went to sleep peacefully. She was just so fun and full of life. She knew how to enjoy herself and she and Dave were known as great hosts.”