Jonnie Irwinis opening up about how painful it’s been to battle terminal lung cancer as a father.
“I’m about making memories. I know my children are so young they won’t remember me,” he said during an appearance onGood Morning BritainThursday, per theDaily Mail. “I want to at least get it on camera or film to show them the early days were brilliant. I think our house for Christmas will be extravagant.”
“You know, we are, in a lot of ways like people with disabilities,” he continued to say elsewhere in the interview. “If we want to work, let us work if we’re up for it. Don’t make decisions for us — treat us normally. That’s why we’re keeping it secret.”
Jonnie Irwin/Instagram
Irwin was first diagnosed in August 2020 after experiencing blurred vision while driving. A series of tests soon confirmed he had lung cancer.
“Within a week of flying back from filming,I was being given six months to live,” he recalled toHello magazineearlier this month. “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.”
The husband and father added that his main goal right now is to inspire others to “make the most of every day.”
Earlier this month, theEscape to the Countryhost toldThe Sunhe hasn’t told his children about his illnessas it would be “a lot for them to get their heads around.“Now that his cancer has spread to his brain, he said he doesn’t know how much time he has left.
“Then, I think they’re not going to remember me, they’re really not,” he shared. “They’re too young and if I die this year there’s no chance they will have memories. And someone else is probably going to bring them up.”
“I’ve done the hard yards with them and someone else will get the easy bit,” he added.
On recent family trips to Cypress and Paris, Irwin focused on documenting their activities. “I want to make those memories for Jess, even if the kids don’t remember it,” he continued to tellThe Sun. “So if she looks at the photo album when I’m long gone she can say to the boys, ‘Here’s the time your dad chucked you in a pool’ or, ‘Here’s the time we went for that day out.'”
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“I felt massively aggrieved because I could work onEscape to the Countryand travel away from home for three to four days,” he said. “When I was told I couldn’t do aPlace in the Sunbecause they couldn’t think they could get insurance it just broke my heart, because it felt like they didn’t even have a thought for me.”
source: people.com
