TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has asked people to give those diagnosed with cancer the “same opportunities for fun and living” as everyone else. The 48-year-old, who presents Channel 4’s A Place In The Sun and the BBC’s Escape To The Country, revealed last month that he has lung cancer which has spread to his brain.
Irwin, who previously said he did not know “how much time I have left”, has said he wants others to treat him as a “normal human being” and not mollycoddle him. Appearing on BBC’s Morning Live on Thursday, he said: “I have good days, I have bad days but the word cancer is absolutely loaded.
“I think the most terrifying word in the English language. As soon as someone hears cancer they just think ‘Oh are you okay?’.
“I am sure lots of people are like me, we don’t want people making decisions on our behalf. ‘Oh don’t invite Jonnie, he won’t be well enough’ or ‘he might ill’. Please invite me, I’ll make that decision thank you very much.
“And we don’t need mollycoddling, we are normal human beings, as normal as it gets. So treat us as you would do two years ago. We’re normal human beings the same as everyone else and we want the same opportunities for fun and living as everybody else gets.”
Irwin previously 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. The presenter said he chose to keep his illness private until now as he did not want people to treat him differently and that he still needed to work.
He added that he wanted to discuss it now so that he could share his experience and help others, offering up his tips on life insurance policies and how he is helping protect his young family for the future. The presenter revealed he sold his buy-to-let properties and started looking at his various savings to help look after his wife Jessica and their three-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac.
He admitted one mistake he feels he made was not taking out a critical illness policy to help cover the periods he was unable to work. This comes after Irwin accused the production company behind A Place In The Sun of not fighting for him to stay after his terminal cancer diagnosis.
A spokeswoman for the production company, Freeform, previously said, in a statement to the PA news agency, that Irwin had been a “hugely important part” of the show and the whole team was “deeply saddened by his diagnosis”.
It added: “Much loved by everyone on the production, no stone was left unturned in trying to enable Jonnie to continue his international filming with us during Covid but the production company were unable to secure adequate insurance cover for him.
“Whilst we were unable to continue to film abroad with him we’re delighted that he was able to remain as part of our team in the UK for exhibitions. We of course understand how frustrating this must be for him at this incredibly difficult time.”
