24 July 2023 , 08:52
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Jonnie Irwin is imploring people living with terminal cancer to "check out hospices" as day patients.
The former A Place In The Sun presenter, 49, is currently receiving palliative care and has been staying in a hospice he describes as "spacious, energised and comfortable".
Jonnie shared last year how he is unsure how long he has left to live, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2020, which has since spread to his brain.
Speaking on Morning Live earlier today, the dad-of-two admitted to having "up days and down days" amid living with the incurable disease and opened up about his experience in a hospice.
Jonnie Irwin appeared from his hospice via video link on Morning Live earlier today (Morning Live/BBC)"I've been using palliative care for three years," Jonnie explained to hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones via a video link. Palliative care is the medical caregiving approach aimed at optimising quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses.
Jonnie Irwin will record video messages for wife and kids to watch after he dies
Jonnie continued to clear up some of the misconceptions about palliative care, saying: "It's the care you're given when doctors think you won't recover - I've been in palliative care since day one, when I got my diagnosis. It can take many guises - from hospital visits and chemotherapy all the way to the hospice."
Reflecting on his recent and current hospice stays, the property guru shared: "It's a delight actually! I wouldn't say it's like [staying in] a hotel but it is like a very nice, private hospital. My perceptive [of hospices] was very much a room full of frail people towards the end of their days, but this is nothing of sort - it's spacious, energised, comfortable... there is even jacuzzi!!
Jonnie added how the staff in the private hospice he is staying in have been "amazing" before Dr Ranj Singh further educated BBC viewers on palliative care - explaining how the redirection of care can "go on for years or just days - it depends on the individual situation".
When asked if he has any advice for other people living with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Jonnie urged others to "embrace" visiting a hospice - informing viewers it's "not all doom and gloom".
Jonnie spoke with Dr Ranj, Helen and Gethin in detail about palliative care (Morning Live/BBC)"My first experience of palliative care in a hospice was when I was having blood transfusions," Jonnie recalled to Helen and Gethin. "I had my first transfusions in hospital and was invited to use a hospice as a day patient. I went into a lovely room with biscuts pilled up and dipped in and out."
He added: "I implore people to check out hospices - if you've got the choice to use them, then use them. It's not all doom and gloom."
"Well done Jonnie Irwin. Best description of palliative care and how it’s funded I’ve heard in a long time," one BBC viewer wrote on Twitter after the segment aired this morning. Another tweeted the Morning Live Twitter account, penning: "Watching your piece on palliative care this morning, My husband was diagnosed in April last year we were given a palliative care nurse immediately and without her and the Hospice ( were he died in December) we would never have coped."
Jonnie, who shares two young sons with his wife Jessica Holmes, decided to go public with the tragic news of his terminal diagnosis last year in order to get the "monkey off my back". The Escape To The Country star was shooting a TV project in Italy when he first realised something might be wrong with his health. In August 2020 he had an episode of blurry vision whilst he was driving - with subsequent tests confirming the dad-of-three had developed lung cancer, which had spread to his brain.
Alongside going public with his diagnosis in November, Jonnie also encouraged others to take out life insurance. "That has helped so much and when I leave this planet, I’ll do so knowing Jess and the boys are in a house that is fully paid off and there’s a bit of money in the bank for them to live off," Jonnie admitted in the first interview about his condition last year.