EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS
SHARING THEIR INCREDIBLE STORY
REVEAL HOW THE POWER OF POSITIVITY HAS SEEN THEM BOTH THROUGH THE TOUGHEST OF TIMES
There are smiles, laughter and so much love in every corner of the Thompsons’ Greater Manchester home, where former professional footballer turned motivational speaker Joe and his wife Chantelle live in a renovated farmhouse with their adorable two daughters, 11-year-old Thailula and Athena-Rae, who celebrated her first birthday just days before we meet.
Joe, 34, rose to professional acclaim as a footballer in the English Football League (EFL), playing for teams including Rochdale, Bury and Tranmere Rovers. The midfielder has lived and breathed football since his childhood, signing for Manchester United’s youth team aged nine before being released at 16. “Football was everything to me,” he says.
Diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system in 2013 aged just 23 and again four years later in 2017, he bravely carried on playing until finally hanging up his boots in 2019.
“I was 23 when I was first diagnosed,” he tells hello!. “As a footballer, you pride yourself on your body, that’s your tool. And for me to be told I’ve got cancer and it’s like stage 4 and I’ve probably had it for three to four years – to say it was gutting is an understatement.”
FAMILY OCCASION
It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for the family after welcoming the baby girl they both dote on. “We’re having a party with the family for Athena’s first birthday,” says Chantelle, a beauty entrepreneur with two businesses under her belt, BBare Cosmetics and Brazilian Booty Lift. “She knows how to say all of our names now and has been walking for the last six or seven weeks.”
It’s a milestone that is particularly poignant following the devastating loss of their son, Dre, who was stillborn days before he was due in May 2021, after the couple had been trying to conceive through IVF for three years. “Chantelle delivered him without pain relief in a birthing pool at the hospital with such dignity. It was one of the most powerful yet painful things I’ve ever seen,” recalls Joe. “There were loads of tears. We sat together feeling numb.”
