Tribute to 'courageous and beautiful' Amy Smith after cancer battle

A husband has paid tribute to his courageous and beautiful wife after she lost her battle against cancer. Amy Smith passed away in Ashgate Hospice in Chesterfield, four months after raising £60,000 through public donations for immunotherapy treatment.

She had previously gone through three courses of chemotherapy which failed to stop a tumour in her spine growing, our sister title the Derbyshire Times reports. Her husband Jon, who lives at Dronfield Woodhouse, just south of Sheffield, said: “Amy will be in my heart forever. She was the love of my life. She was a very loving person with a lovable personality. Everybody who ever met her loved her.”

Jon and Amy married in 2010 after living on the same road in Dronfield in the early 2000s. They welcomed daughter Isla into the world 11 years ago. Jon said: “Amy was a beautiful mum and wife.”

Amy battled a spinal tumour three times from 2016. Jon explained: “Before she got ill I knew she was tough but I was astounded by her. When she left Northern General Hospital’s spinal injuries department after the tumour was debulked in 2017, her consultant told her she would never walk again.

“Amy’s answer to that was ‘I’ll prove you wrong’. She then met an amazing physiotherapist at Chesterfield Royal called James Hart and with his hard work and Amy’s courage and hard work they surpassed what I thought was possible.”

Five years later Amy was walking around Meadowhall when her legs and arms felt numb. The cancer in her spine had returned. By Christmas 2023 an MRI showed that the tumour had increased in size and there was no NHS treatment to halt its growth. Given just weeks to live, 42-year-old Amy launched her fundraising appeal for immunotherapy treatment in Germany.

She told the Derbyshire Times in January that she wasn’t willing to give up and within five days of launching her appeal had smashed her £60,000 target. Jon said: “She didn’t make it to Germany unfortunately as she became too ill but she did get two different immunotherapy treatments sent over which she could take here at the same time as spending time with her family.

“There is some of the GoFundMe money left which at this stage I want to donate to Ashgate Hospice. I will ask on Amy’s Instagram what people think should be done with it.

“Amy was in Ashgate for the last six weeks as her pain got too much to control at home. She spent her last few days sleeping really. She died very peacefully and we can’t thank Ashgate Hospice enough for this.”

Jon and Amy’s parents Carol and Jon were by her bedside when she died in the early hours of May 17. Amy also leaves her sister, Lyndsay.

Four years ago Amy opened an aesthetics and skin care clinic called The White Retreat which Jon had built for her during lockdown. Jon added: “She loved all aspects of it and was always studying more and more techniques. The White Retreat is still running and we have an amazing clinician in there now doing all the treatments, with me behind the scenes but I also have my own company to run.”