Jonnie Irwin shared his gratitude for the outpouring of support he’s received since sharing his terminal diagnosis
(Picture: @jonnieirwintv/Instagram)A Place in the Sun presenter Jonnie Irwin has been left “overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support he’s received after announcing his terminal cancer diagnosis.
The father-of-three recently went public with his fight saying he “doesn’t have long left” after his lung cancer had spread to his brain. Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the 48-year-old shared his gratitude to his followers for their support since his cancer diagnosis after taking a few days off social media to give himself some “headspace”.
Sharing a trio of photos from a dog walk with his brother-in-law, he wrote: “Overwhelmed by your kind messages, not had the chance to read them all yet but I assure you I will.
“Yesterday I needed some headspace so I escaped to the country with my brother-in-law and his dog. It was a tonic. Xx”.
Earlier this week, Irwin revealed the first warning sign of his illness came while he was filming A Place in the Sun in August 2020 in Italy, when his vision became blurry while driving.
“Within a week of flying back from filming, I was being given six months to live,” the Escape to the Country host told Hello! magazine.
“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 apologise to her. I felt so responsible.”
Irwin, who has a three-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac with his wife, Jessica, said he had chosen to keep his illness private until now but no longer wants to carry it like “a dirty secret”.
He said: “It’s got to the point now where it feels like I’m carrying a dirty secret, it’s become a monkey on my back. I hope that by shaking that monkey off I might inspire people who are living with life-limiting prospects to make the most of every day, to help them see that you can live a positive life, even though you are dying.
“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. Some people in my position have bucket lists, but I just want us to do as much as we can as a family.”
