Entertainment
Jo Whiley’s sister Frances to get coronavirus vaccine this weekend after terrifying health battle
Jo Whiley’s sister, Frances, is set to get her coronavirus vaccine this weekend, after she was rushed to hospital with symptoms last month.
The BBC Radio 1 star previously opened up about her younger sibling’s battle with Covid-19, following an outbreak at her care home.
At the time, the 55-year-old voiced her confusion as she was offered a jab before Frances, who has learning disabilities and is in a vulnerable category.
Sharing the latest update on her radio show, she told listeners: ‘Also my sister gets her vaccination this coming weekend.
‘It has been a long time coming.
‘You have to wait a month after you have had Covid but it finally comes this weekend so we could not be happier about that as well.’
Frances, who also has the rare Cri du Chat genetic syndrome, was taken in for treatment when she contracted coronavirus, with her worried family discussing ‘end of life scenarios’ at one point.
Jo later appeared on Channel 4 News, to reveal she had made a recovery.
‘She’s doing good and we’re in a place that, five days ago, I never thought we’d be. We thought it was all over,’ she said at the time. ‘It’s been hellish, it’s been awful, unbearable.
‘We just couldn’t quite comprehend what was going on, and that it had come to this. And so quickly as well. That’s the really shocking thing.
‘Then to see this miraculous recovery. I mean, Frances is made of some kind of superhuman strength inside her. I can’t believe she is where she is now.’
Discussing Frances’ illness, Jo opened up about feeling as though they had ‘failed’ her as a family, and that the system overall hadn’t protected her and others in the same situation.
Speaking about her issues, the DJ vowed to always protect those who can’t fight themselves.
‘When I was raging with terror in the middle of the night about Frances, I just felt like we’d failed her,’ she added. ‘I felt like everybody had failed her, and all people like her with a learning disability.
‘We’d let them down every step of the way, we hadn’t protected them, we weren’t speaking up for them, we weren’t fighting for them. And that’s why it’s so important to me to battle, to make a noise, because they can’t do it themselves.
‘They completely rely on us and that’s what we have to do. I’m going to carry on doing that from here on in, because it’s not fair.’
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