Fighting Cancer, Famous TV Host, 49, Wants To ‘Control’ His Digital Legacy: ‘It’s Amazing To Think I Too Could Speak To My Wife And Children”

Details

Living With Cancer & Personal Choices

TV host Johnnie Iriwin, a loving husband and father of three battling stage four lung cancer which spread to his brain, has opened up about leaving messages for his family for when he passes away.
Irwin’s first warning sign of the disease came in 2020 when his vision went blurry while driving. As a father to three young children, he is determined to make the most of whatever time he has left with his family.
Now, he’s preparing his “digital legacy” in hopes to talk to his wife and children after he passes away.
Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer and it can develop in both smokers and non-smokers, but people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who don't smoke.

Jonnie Irwin, known for being the host of BBC's "Escape to the Country" and for his work on home improvement reality TV show A Place in the Sun, opened up this week about how he’s planning to record video messages for his family to watch after he passes away.

The 49-year-old loving husband and dad of three, who is battling lung cancer that metastasized to his brain, revealed on Friday's Morning Live on BBC One how he’s going to take “control” of his digital legacy for his wife and children.

"I've got a lifetime of memories. And over the years, more and more of them have been stored online,” Irwin said on the morning segment. “And whilst I've been getting my affairs in order since my diagnosis two and a half years ago, I've not given much thought to my digital legacy.”

He admitted, “I've posted thousands of pictures and images online, but when I pass on, I've got no idea what will happen to those images, who will access them or even if they could be deleted and lost forever.”

Irwin, who has been battling stage four lung cancer since 2020, insists on making the most of the time he has left but also wants to prepare for a time when he won’t be around.

“It’s amazing to think I too could speak to my wife and children after I pass away. My diagnosis has taken a lot from me but it has given me the ability to prepare,” Irwin explained.

“The only way to make sure your digital legacy is as you like it, is to take control now,” he added. “And I’m going to take every opportunity to do that for the people I love.”

British television presenter Rav Wilding called Irwin’s talk about preparing for when he has passed away “such a powerful film.”

“I think that film is a real reminder about all the practical things you can do,” Wilding added, after admitting he had “goosebumps” from listening to Irwin.

Jonnie Irwin’s Diagnosis

In November 2022, Iriwn revealed publicly that he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 and that it had now spread to his brain. He has treated his cancer with chemotherapy and other cancer drugs, reports the Daily Mail. He was diagnosed after experiencing blurred vision.

Irwin’s first warning sign came when his vision went blurry while driving in August 2020 during a filming trip.

"Within a week of flying back from filming, I was being given six months to live," he previously said to Hello! Magazine. "I had to go home and tell my wife, who was looking after our babies, that she was on her own pretty much. That was devastating. All I could do was apologize to her. I felt so responsible."

His wife Jessica is 40 years old, and the couple shares their 3-year-old son Rex and 2-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac. And though drugs have been prolonging his life, Irwin's future remains uncertain. He's trying his best to spend precious time with his family and not let his disease ruin whatever time he has with them.

"I don't know how long I have left, but I try to stay positive and my attitude is that I'm living with cancer, not dying from it," he said. "I set little markers things I want to be around for. I got into the habit of saying: 'Don't plan ahead because I might not be well enough.' But now I want to make plans.

"I want to make memories and capture these moments with my family because the reality is, my boys are going to grow up not knowing their dad and that breaks my heart."

Regardless of the harrowing path ahead, Irwin is determined to put up a fight.

"One day, this is going to catch up with me," he said. "But I'm doing everything I can to hold that day off for as long as possible. I owe that to Jess and our boys. Some people in my position have bucket lists, but I just want us to do as much as we can as a family."

Understanding Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer. Diagnosis and treatment of the disease can be tricky since symptoms often don't appear until the cancer has spread.

What Happens When You've Been Newly Diagnosed With Lung Cancer

An initial symptom, for example, could be as serious as a seizure if the lung cancer has already spread to the brain. But other symptoms can include increased coughing, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, shortness of breath, wheezing, losing your voice or persistent infections like bronchitis or pneumonia.

The two main types of lung cancer are non-small cell, which makes up 85 percent of cases, and small-cell. These types act differently and, accordingly, require different types of treatment.

Dr. Patrick Forde, a thoracic oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, tells SurvivorNet about how distinguishing between the two types and their subtypes can be very beneficial.

Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer: What Is It?

"Within that non-small cell category, there's a subtype called non-squamous adenocarcinoma, and that's the group of patients for whom genetic testing is very important on the tumor," he explains. "Genetic testing is looking for mutations in the DNA, in the tumor, which are not present in your normal DNA."

Declining smoking rates have lead to an improved outlook for lung cancer. This is because cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for the disease and people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from the disease than people who don't smoke. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention states that cigarette smoking is linked to about 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer deaths.

It's important to remember, however, that even people who've never smoked before can still get lung cancer. The CDC reports that, in the United States, about 10 to 20 percent of lung cancers, or 20,000 to 40,000 lung cancers each year, happen in people who've never smoked.

"Some lung cancers are from unknown exposure to air pollution, radon, or asbestos," Dr. Raja Flores, system chair of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai previously told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. "We also see more never-smokers with lung cancer who have a family history of it."

Despite the fact that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women in the United States, there has been lots of progress within the world of lung cancer treatment specifically when it comes to immunotherapy.

"Immunotherapy is here to stay," Dr. Brendon Stiles, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical oncology at Montefiore Health System, told SurvivorNet. "And it's really changed the face of lung cancer, just like targeted therapies."

Getting even more specific, checkpoint inhibitors and our ability to genetically test for targeted medications have made a huge difference. Checkpoint inhibitors are a class of immunotherapy drugs that specifically target proteins found either on immune or cancer cells to prevent their binding together. In other words, these drugs don't kill cancer cells directly, but instead stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells while hopefully not affecting other surrounding healthy cells.

"It's amazing to me now that you can have Stage IV lung cancer and actually not even need chemotherapy," Dr. Stiles said. "If you have high expression of a protein that we know is targeted by immunotherapy, you may just get immunotherapy alone."

There are also many targeted therapies out there for patients to consider. No matter what, it's important that people with lung cancer advocate for themselves and ask if targeted therapies and immunotherapies may be right for them.

Facing Cancer as a Parent

Battling cancer as a parent is a huge challenge. And thoughts about leaving your children may be harder than the actual diagnosis itself.

Telling Your Kids You Have Cancer 'When it Comes to Your Kids, You Want to Protect Them'

In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, breast cancer survivor Gina de Givenchy shared her experience of telling her 12-year-old daughter she had cancer.

"I felt it was important to mask it because I really wanted her to know that I was going to be OK," she said. "I didn't want her to see me weak and sicklyâ€¦ when it comes to your kids, I think you always want to sort of protect them."

Thinking of your children when you're facing cancer can be incredibly daunting, but having little ones can also give cancer patients another huge reason to fight for their lives.

Jovannie Lorenzo knows this to be true. She was just 32 years old when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. In a conversation with SurvivorNet, she explains the immense fear she felt during her cancer journey. Not just because of the cancer itself, but also because of her three kids. As a single parent, Lorenzo knew she needed to do everything she could to be around to raise them.

Facing a Cancer Diagnosis as a Single Parent: "I Knew I Had to Fight for My Life"

"I knew that I had to do everything possible to be here for my children," Lorenzo says. "They are my saving grace. They are the reason I wake up every morning. They are the reason why I fight every single day and I make a choice to be positive, to be happy, and to move forward."

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Danielle Cinone is a writer at SurvivorNet. Read More