Jo Yates thought she was just burnt out. Then a routine check-up turned her world upside down.

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From the outside, Jo Yates was the quintessential Australian success story. She owned an apartment in Bondi, ran a thriving digital production business with her partner of 18 years, and spent her weekends renovating properties.

She had worked tirelessly to build a name for herself as a creative, originally moving from the UK to Australia after teaching herself digital photography when her university lecturers insisted it was just a "fad."

"I actually had a great life," Jo told Sarah Davidson, host of Mamamia's Pivot Club podcast. "I lived in Bondi, I owned an apartment, I'd worked really, really hard to be in that position.

"On the surface, everything was fantastic."

Listen: Jo Yates on the Pivot Club podcast. Article continues after podcast.

But beneath the veil of perfection, the engine was beginning to smoke.

Jo was running at 300 miles an hour, renovating houses, and managing a business, all while feeling a growing sense of disconnection.

"I was just a little bit exhausted," Jo said.

"I don't know whether I'd outgrown Sydney," she admitted, adding that she loved the "laid-back way of life in Queensland."

While she wanted to move up north, there were a few hurdles along the way.

"I knew I probably couldn't do my job up here, which was a big barrier," she said. "And my ex-partner didn't want to leave."

But as the burnout intensified, Jo couldn't ignore her unease.

Watch: How to discuss burnout with your doctor. Post continues after video.

"I was feeling really like I needed to break out for about two years," she said. "I was becoming really depressed, and I just knew that something had to change."

And that change didn't come as a gentle realisation.

Her 18-year relationship — the anchor of her adult life — came to an end.

Suddenly untethered, Jo decided to "scratch an itch" she'd had for years: she bought a house in Noosa, Queensland, sight unseen. Her plan was simple: move up, renovate the house, sell it, and return to her high-stakes life in Sydney.

Then, three things happened in quick succession.

COVID-19 locked down the world, Jo realised she loved her new "Ramsay Street" style neighbours in Noosa, and she received a diagnosis that would change the trajectory of her life forever.

It all started with a routine pap smear.

"My doctor saw there was something on my results that she thought was endometriosis," Jo explained. "She actually sent me for an ultrasound and found that both of my ovaries had tumours on them."

The news left Jo reeling.

"It was very unexpected because I had no symptoms," she said. "I was going to Pilates, going on big walks, I was very active at that time and I was incredibly healthy.

"I'm just very, very lucky my doctor was on top of it because I've heard a lot of stories of women who get dismissed with the symptoms that you do get with ovarian cancer. 

"I got caught at stage one."

Jo was suddenly facing one of the hardest decisions she ever had to make: to get a hysterectomy at the age of 42.

At the time, she had been dating her current partner for just three months. They had briefly spoken about children, and Jo had voiced she never wanted kids. But the couple figured they could revisit the conversation down the track.

"Then, before you know it, we're in a meeting with a surgeon talking about what parts of my internal organs we're keeping and getting rid of," Jo said.

"I could have made the decision to keep my uterus and do surrogacy down the line, but I just didn't want to risk anything being left in there or coming back. So, I opted to remove everything."

The decision put Jo into medical menopause earlier than she anticipated.

Getting a hysterectomy forced Jo into early menopause, Image: Supplied.

"I knew nothing about menopause at all. I wasn't at an age where I needed to start thinking about it."

When Jo awoke from surgery, she was told the procedure was successful and all the tumours had been removed.

But three weeks later, following a detailed biopsy, Jo received a devastating phone call.

Some cancerous cells had spread to her omentum, which is a fatty layer of tissue that helps protect the organs in the abdomen.

Jo had two choices. She could do nothing and hope for the best, or she could undergo chemotherapy. She chose the latter.

"The thought of not throwing everything at the disease and then potentially having a recurrence and having to face people I care about and tell them this whole thing is happening again. I didn't want to do that."

Over six months of chemotherapy, Jo lost half of her hair, her eyebrows, and her eyelashes.

"That was super confronting," she said. "But I'm glad I did it. I feel like I've thrown everything at the cancer that I could have done."

An unexpected lifeline.

While most people would have retreated into survival mode, Jo's history of "pivoting" gave her a different set of tools. She knew she needed a distraction — something "ridiculous" to keep her brain from spiralling into the dark statistics of ovarian cancer.

"I decided, this is ridiculous in hindsight, I decided to buy myself a houseboat," Jo shared.

"I renovated that houseboat whilst I was having chemo so that I had a project to focus on... Two days of the week after chemo I was great because I was on steroids and then I'd crash... It just really refocused my attention onto something ridiculous, fun."

While she lost her hair, her eyebrows, and her eyelashes, Jo was learning how solar panels worked and how to plumb a vessel. It was a lifeline of her own making.

Jo's decision to buy a houseboat served as a lifeline. Image: Supplied.

"Focus on the good things, try and find yourself something, a project... something that can take your mind that is something that's gonna bring you joy," she advised.

Today, Jo is cancer-free and has completely rebuilt her identity.

The high-stress world of digital production is a memory. Instead, she has leaned fully into her passion for property, launching her own company, Bricks and More.

She isn't doing it alone.

Her sister moved from Melbourne to join her, and the two now work side-by-side as a renovation powerhouse.

"My sister's joined me in renovating properties... She calls me her business partner now, which is very cute," Jo said. "I've actually set up a really amazing life where I can dip in and out of things... I want to make a life that works for me and allows me to do the things that are important to me."

From the darkrooms of Southampton to the decks of a houseboat in Noosa, Jo's journey proves that while you can't always control the "roadblocks" life throws at you, you can always choose how you build the road around them.

"You've really got to look at what you want your life to look like and start taking steps towards that," she said. "That can be baby steps... so long as you are making steps towards what you want your life to look like."

Feature Image: Supplied.