A First Dates star who found love on the hit Channel 4 series has just years to live.
Mike Sumner, 38, revealed that he applied for the show after realising that he had limited time to live.
The terminally ill man suffers from Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and has said that his condition has worsened, leaving him with just five years left to live, The Daily Star reports.
Mike first signed up for the dating show after he decided that he wanted to go on TV as part of his bucket list.
Mike met Zoe Welch on the reality TV series, which sees singletons paired up with the aim of finding love.
The couple have since moved in together after falling for one another.
Sharing his excitement, he said: "I'd watched it for years and at the end of the series in 2019, they were asking for applicants. I thought I'd fill it in, but I wasn't sure if it would really come to anything."
In January 2020, the show invited Mike to a number of video meetings to "work out how funny I was and if I could be entertaining enough to appear on the show".
Mike later moved onto the next stage and went to London to film an "introduction piece where I sat and spoke about what I was looking for".
However, he did reveal he was warned that it didn't necessarily mean he would be on the show for definite as it "depended on whether or not they could find me a match".
He added: "If they couldn't that would be it and the intro would just be kept in their bank, but never seen.
"Thankfully, they found me a date and I was invited to the restaurant in Manchester in early March 2020, it was ages in the making due to the pandemic."
Mike's episode was aired in 2021, but he still appears in the opening credits where he said " "f****** hell" after girlfriend Zoe downed a pint.
The couple revealed that they now get recognised on the streets from time-to-time after their TV appearance.
Sharing some behind-the-scenes secrets from the show, Mike added that Fred and Merlin are "genuine people".
He explained how not all is as it seems with the show, and said that he chatted with Merlin for longer than the programme shows.
He said: "I spoke to Merlin for much longer than the show suggests too. We must have been speaking for about 10 minutes or so about all sorts, but they don't show that much."
Speaking about his illness since the show, he said: "It has worsened recently, for example, I've lost a certain amount of dexterity in my left hand.
"My balance is still a total nightmare too and my speech has also slowed down recently.
"I do have bad days, but Zoe has definitely kept me going and kept me positive, especially during lockdown."
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