In April, Christy Dignam begged for more years to be with his family.
In an hour-long interview with Ryan Tubridy, Christy told the RTE star how he wished he had more time.
In his final ever interview, he said: “Just fear, nobody wants to die. When I first got diagnosed, I remember praying I was like, 'Please, just give me 10 more years'.
READ MORE: How to listen back to Christy Dignam's 'heartbreaking' interview with Ryan Tubridy in full
"And that 10 years are up now and you're kind of saying, 'I know I only asked for 10 but you couldn't throw another 10 in there could you, yeah?'"
During the conversation, he spoke candidly about his regrets in life and he shared that the happiest moment he ever had was when his daughter Kiera was born.
Reflecting on the life-changing moment, he said: “The love hit me that quickly, that suddenly, it nearly knocked me on my arse.”
Christy recalled the day he was told he had cancer.
"I kept getting these chest infections and they gave me antibiotics, but they didn't seem to be working so I got an ambulance one day when I could hardly breathe and they did a load of tests.
"Then they sent me to Beaumont for a couple of biopsies and they told me it might be bad news. There might be two cancers - amyloidosis is one of them and multiple myeloma is the other or it could be neither.
"I came in the next day, and they told me, 'You've got the two of them' ... Initially, I rejected it and I said to your man, 'You go back to Trinity and get your degrees because you don't know what you're talking about'.
"Anyone who has got a cancer diagnosis will understand that, but I remember about five years prior to being diagnosed, I had to go out to the hospice in Raheny and there was this 17-year-old kid there and he was dying, and I went out and did a couple of songs.
"When I was on the way back home, I got a phone call off his sister and she told me that the chap had died just after I'd left. I started thinking he had 17 years of life, and I was 50 at the time."
Asked if he pretended his illness wasn't happening, he said: "Initially, I was so ill I couldn't avoid confronting it. It hit me in the face, but when I got a handle on the medication and stabilised the whole thing, I'd live as if there was nothing wrong with me and if something debilitated me, I'd deal with it that day. That's the way it's been.
“When I first got diagnosed, I didn't think about what car I drove, I didn't care about where I lived, I didn't care about Aslan. I didn't care about fame, well I never cared about fame or any of that s**t.
“The only thing I cared about was seeing my grandkids for that little bit longer.
“Some of the happiest moments I've had have been since I've been diagnosed, because you appreciate things more.
“You appreciate life. You wake up in the morning, your feet hit the floor. Because it's affecting my heart, I'll be here at night and I'll get a little twinge in your heart and you'll be like, ‘This is it, this it is,’ and then you'll wake up in the morning and you go, ‘Thanks for the love of me’.”
However, he insisted at the time he wasn’t religious and did not turned to God.
"I was sitting here one day a few weeks ago and I was looking out the window and this fella walked by, and I thought to myself, 'I'll never do that again. I'll never just go for a walk...' and that sent me into a spiral and I thought about all the things I won't do again.
"It's like you're heading into an abyss. I wouldn't be hugely religious. Logic gets in the way. But I believe we're all spiritual beings in one sense or other.
"I remember there used to be an old saying - that 'religion is for people who want to go to Heaven, spirituality is for people who have been to Hell'. And I really identified with that."
One of Christy’s wishes is that his daughter Keira carries on his legacy after he is gone.
"One of the things I wanted to do as well, if I was looking down, if there was a heaven, I would dearly love Kiera to carry my legacy... because if there’s anybody on earth has a right to sing those songs, it would be her,” he said.
“In some ways she’s been unlucky being my daughter because people think, ‘that’s only because she’s Christy Dignam’s daughter’, but she has a real talent.
“She’s the only person on earth who would have the right to do it in that way.”
READ NEXT:
- Mary Lou McDonald blasts "false and deeply offensive" Regency comments: 'I have never met Gerard Hutch'
- Ireland to record hottest day of the year so far this week amid glorious Met Eireann forecast
- Wild scenes at Crucible as protesters storm snooker tables during World Championships
- House next to where Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered for sale for second time in two years
- Listeners in tears over Christy Dignam's 'heartbreaking' interview with Ryan Tubridy
Get news updates direct to your inbox by signing up to our daily newsletter here
