Jo Gardiner, the jo race across the world contestant from Manchester, has died after a long battle with cancer, a year after her son Sam was killed in a car crash. Her family said she was “following a long and courageous battle with cancer” and asked people to remember her with stories, laughter and adventure.
Gardiner appeared with Sam on Race Across the World in 2020, travelling together across South America in the second season. The loss closes a public family story that first reached viewers through the show and then turned tragic when Sam died aged 24.
Jo Gardiner and Sam
Jo and Sam were remembered by viewers for their journey across Latin America in 2020, but the family statement after her death focused on the private loss behind that public memory. It described her as “an intrepid adventurer, brave, kind, witty and endlessly loving” and said she was “one of a kind. There will never be another her.”
The family also urged those who knew her to “tell the funny stories, raise a glass, have an adventure, laugh loudly and live life to the full.” That instruction is the clearest signal of how they want her story handled now: not as a television footnote, but as a life remembered by the people closest to her.
Sam in Manchester for
Sam died in June last year in a single vehicle collision while visiting his family in Manchester for a family gathering. His family said they were “devastated by the loss of our beloved son Sam in a terrible accident,” and later added that he “brought warmth, laughter and a smattering of chaos wherever he went.”
Emon Choudhury, who won the second season, said Sam was “one of those people you never forget. The kind of person who could light up a room without even trying.” Participants from every series of the show also took part in the Great Manchester Run in honour of Sam last year, then again this year in Sam’s honour.
Charlie and
A Race Across the World spokeswoman said the production team, the and the cast offered “deepest and heartfelt sympathies” to Jo’s son Charlie and her wider family and friends. The same statement said: “Following the tragic death of Jo’s son Sam last year, we paid tribute to how integral Sam and Jo had been to series two.”
It also said: “Millions of people remembered their transformative journey across Latin America in 2020 and we hold that memory in our hearts as we fondly recall Jo’s passion for life, her kindness, her strength, and above all her utter devotion to Sam and her family.”
Jo’s death lands as the final public chapter in a story that had already shifted from television adventure to family grief. The show’s audience knew the pair for the route; her family wants them remembered for the life behind it.
