TV host Jonnie Irwin’s approach to fatal disease inspires many

Jonnie Irwin, a famous English television presenter, is now suffering from terminal cancer. 

The BBC host for the reality show ‘Escape to the Country’ in an interview with Hello magazine revealed that he has lung cancer that has spread to his brain already. 

The 48-year-old Irwin shares three children—son Rex, 3, and two-year-old twin male children, Rafa and Cormac—with his wife, Jessica, 41. 

Irwin once experienced blurred vision while driving In August 2020 and went to the hospital to find out the reason. After a series of tests, the cancer diagnosis result was positive. At that time, he was in Italy filming for ‘A Place in the Sun,’ a British television series.

“Within a week of flying back from filming, I was being given six months to live,” Irwin said and added, “I had to go home and tell my wife, who was looking after our babies, that she was on her own pretty much. That was devastating. All I could do was apologize to her. I felt so responsible.”

“One day, this is going to catch up with me, but I’m doing everything I can to hold that day off for as long as possible. I owe that to Jess and our boys,” he said.

He tried to pursue his job without revealing his diagnosis but felt like he was carrying a dirty secret and expressed, “It’s become a monkey on my back. I hope that by shaking that monkey off I might inspire people to make the most of every day.”

My attitude is that I’m living with cancer, not dying from it, Irwin clarified. 

Irwin told the outlet, “I don’t know how long I have left,” and emotionally expressed, “I want to make memories and capture these moments with my family because the reality is, my boys are going to grow up not knowing their dad and that breaks my heart.”