Jonnie Irwin has told of his plans to provide for his three young children after he's gone, following his terminal cancer diagnosis. In a heartbreaking interview on BBC's Morning Live, TV personality revealed today that he is getting his financial ducks in a row so he can secure the futures of his sons three year-old Rex and two year-old twins Rafa and Cormac.
Last month, the host of the Channel 4 show A Place in The Sun announced that he was sick with lung cancer, but kept his diagnosis a secret for two years as he didn't want to be "treated differently".
He has since revealed that his lung cancer had spread to his brain and doesn't know how long he has left. Now the 48-year-old is speaking out in the hope it will inspire others to "make the most of every day", reports Wales Online.
Speaking to presenter Gethin Jones on Thursday, he said: "My experience will hopefully help people with a life-threatening disease and people who are dealing with these people. When you get diagnosed with something so serious, all control is taken away.
"I wanted to take control back, so I did the usual weird diets and I also knew I had to look after my family. The moment you have family, your have this massive responsibility to look after them."
He revealed how a sound engineer on A Place In The Sun realised his symptoms were serious when he described having blurred vision, and took him straight to a hospital in Spain. After flying back to the UK and going to a hospital in the North East, he was given the tragic news.
He told Jones how he is making a financial plan for his family so they are secure for life, even if he is no longer around. "Being freelance, I had a couple of properties. I wanted to try and get in a position to get my family into a mortgage-free situation and so I sold my buy-to-lets and then started looking around my savings," Irwin explained.
"I think most people should do this every five years anyway, just to see how much you are worth. We always put it off but it is helpful. I went round looking in all my cookie jars. I consulted my life insurance policy holder who gave me the rules and regulations of what you can expect. To some extent, I did everything I could but I wish I had done more, certainly in terms of life insurance."
He added that most people think about life insurance, but said he didn't realise there is a gap - which critical illness insurance can cover. "When you get a terminal diagnosis, it covers you for when you are gone," he said. "But a terminal diagnosis can go on for years and it will affect your work and you are waiting for this payout, who is going to pay your rent if you can't work?
"Critical illness covers you as soon as you are ill. I didn't take that and that put a lot of pressure on me, having to work on days when I didn't feel like it. That is the one mistake I made."
He also said he is taking each day as it comes and insisted he doesn't need "mollycoddling" after Gethin revealed that when they phoned Jonnie to ask him to appear on the show he couldn't take the call because he was out mountain biking.
"We are normal human beings," he said. "Don't not invite us because you think we won't be well enough. Treat us as you would do two years ago. We are the same as everyone else and we want the same opportunities for fun as everyone else."
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