Jo Gardiner, who starred alongside her son Sam in the BBC’s Race Across the World, has died aged 61 after what her family described as “a long and courageous battle with cancer.”
The Manchester physiotherapist’s death comes barely a year after 24-year-old Sam was killed when his white Volkswagen Golf R estate left the road and overturned in June 2025.
Sam, a landscape gardener, had been back in Manchester for a family gathering at the time of the crash.
The pair had won over audiences as a mother-and-son team on the programme’s second series, broadcast in 2020, which followed contestants travelling thousands of miles across South America without taking flights.
Jo Gardiner starred alongside her son Sam on the second series of BBC’s Race Across the World
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BBC
Jo is survived by her other son, Charlie.
The mother-of-two had signed up for the BBC One travel competition because she wanted to share an adventure with Sam, who had ADHD.
Together they joined four other pairs of contestants on a gruelling overland journey spanning from Mexico City to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina.
Sam had been working on a remote estate on Scotland’s west coast before his death.
Ms Gardiner has died aged 61 following what her family described as a ‘long and courageous battle with cancer’
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BBC
During filming, he described his mother as “amazing.”
Beyond her television appearance, Jo lived with type 1 diabetes and served as an ambassador for Diabetes UK.
Her family have established a JustGiving page in her name, with proceeds going to the charity.
Her family described her as “an intrepid adventurer, brave, kind, witty and endlessly loving.”
The duo won over viewers as they travelled across Latin America together in 2020
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BBC
In their tribute, the family said Jo possessed “a rare gift for making everyone around her feel more alive.”
“She was blessed with countless friends, drawn to her extraordinary magnetism,” they added.
“Somehow, each one felt as though they were among her very best.”
They called her “our family, our joy, our safe place and our absolute treasure.”
The family took solace in knowing “her laughter, her courage, her kindness and her wonderfully outrageous spirit will live on in the many people whose lives she touched.”
While requesting privacy during their grief, they encouraged those who loved Jo “to do exactly what she would have wanted: tell the funny stories, raise a glass, have an adventure, laugh loudly and live life to the full.”
“She was one of a kind,” they said. “There will never be another her.”
A spokesperson for the Race Across the World production team, Studio Lambert, and the BBC offered “deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Jo’s son Charlie, and her wider family and friends.”
Jo’s death comes just over a year after the tragic loss of her son and Race Across the World co-star Sam
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BBC
They noted that following Sam’s tragic death last year, millions recalled the pair’s “transformative journey across Latin America in 2020.”
“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,” the statement continued.
The show’s producers said Jo had become “the matriarch of the Race Across the World cast family” whose legacy endures through the many lives she affected both during and after the series.
“It was a privilege to share her story, and she will be deeply missed,” they added.
