Johnnie Walker’s wife says ‘we’re openly confronting’ fact that radio star has only weeks to live – and reveals she is already selling his clothes on Vinted

Beloved Radio 2 presenter Johnnie Walker and his wife Tiggy are collectively accepting the fact of his incurable sickness after Tiggy revealed her husband has weeks to live.

Tiggy, 63, appeared on Jeremy Vine‘s radio present on Monday and shared the unhappy information that Johnnie, 79, has incurable idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

‘So many individuals who love Johnnie have been in contact,’ says former tv commercials producer Tiggy, who has been married to Johnnie for greater than 20 years. 

‘Listeners write in regardless that they do not know our tackle. They simply put ‘Johnnie Walker, DJ, Dorset’ on the envelope, and by some means it will get to us. Ray Davies, Peter Kay, even Elton John rang the opposite day.’

‘He’s a really considerate man,’ Johnnie of Elton. ‘I helped him out at first of his profession, gave him a number of radio play. He wished me to know he had by no means forgotten that.’ 

Radio 2 star Johnnie insisted on persevering with broadcasting from house all through his sickness

Johnnie’s Sunday present Sounds of the 70s has been delighting round two million listeners every week for practically 15 years.

Johnnie is now wheelchair certain and dependent on an oxygen machine however continues to broadcast from house. 

His physician says that he might die at any second. He was initially given two to 5 years to live and the 5 12 months mark is this August.

His physician stated that he might die at any second. He was initially given two to 5 years to live and the 5 12 months mark is this August.

Tomorrow afternoon Johnnie will make reference to his sickness for the primary time on his radio present.

The music he has chosen to open the present will probably be Smokey Robinson’s Tears of a Clown. 

‘Not for any specific purpose besides that it is an amazing music. I’m not but on the stage the place I’ve turn out to be sentimental about my alternative of data. When I realise that I’m broadcasting my very previous few reveals, it’d occur then,’ Johnnie says.

The couple moved to Dorset three years in the past after Tiggy realised the damp of their adored Georgian farmhouse was exacerbating Johnnie’s sickness.

 Their new-construct, single storey house permits Johnnie to easy accessibility to his recording studio at any time when he is within the temper to hear to some music. His favorite artists embrace John Prine, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen.

Tiggy is not a fan of the brand new house, however Johnnie spends a number of time in the principle room, which has floor-to-ceiling home windows and a view of fields. They have additionally lined their partitions with work.

‘I panic sometimes after I cannot breathe. But the nice factor is I’m not in any ache. 

‘I really feel like an outdated man in a pub speaking about what’s improper with me. I’m not relaxed speaking about it actually,’ Johnnie says.

‘The highlight does not search me out. I do not like fuss. I’m a modest man.’

The couple have only chosen to converse out about Johnnie’s sickness to carry consideration to Carers Week, which ends tomorrow.

They have been co-patrons of the charity Carers UK for greater than a decade.

The pair met in 2001, a 12 months after he divorced his first wife Frances Kum, with whom he has a daughter, Beth, and son, Sam.

 Johnnie married Tiggy in 2002 and fell terribly in poor health on their honeymoon in Kerala, India, with what turned out to be non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

Tiggy went from new bride to full-time carer. Johnnie recovered and went again to work in 2004. 

In 2013, Tiggy was identified with stage-4 breast most cancers, from which she has now recovered.

‘She wasn’t an excellent affected person. Because, after all, she wasn’t in management. And Tiggy loves to be in management,’ Johnnie says.

‘I used to be fats and bloated on steroids. The chemo was so unhealthy it felt like dying,’ Tiggy says.

Tiggy additionally says in entrance of Johnnie that he was ‘terrible’ when he had chemo. 

‘It utterly modified your character. I as soon as cooked you pea soup and you screamed at me: ‘I do not f—ing need pea soup!

‘We weren’t lengthy married, I used to be terribly insecure and like a terrified rabbit. I used to be now not certain who I had married. After you went again to work I sank right into a dreadful melancholy,’ she says to Johnnie.

Carers UK estimates that greater than 10 million folks have been or are caring for a cherished one, saving the NHS round £162 billion a 12 months.

This is the equal, in impact, says the charity, of a second NHS, which receives about £164 billion annually in funding in England. 

The Government pays carers £81.90 every week, however only in the event that they earn lower than £150 every week. 

The job is so demanding six out of seven carers quit their jobs totally. Tiggy stop her nicely-paid and profitable profession to take care of Johnnie.

‘The entire system is outdated,’ says Tiggy. ‘The method healthcare is going, [the NHS] does not need to take people who find themselves in poor health into hospitals or properties or hospices. 

‘They need these folks to be cared for at house. The NHS carry you the tools – the bathtub lifts, the wheelchairs, the oxygen machines. But it does rely on one particular person to do all of it – a partner, a mom, a daughter.’

Tiggy has since turn out to be Johnnie’s half-time supervisor, she has a column on the native paper and she is creating a movie primarily based on Naomi Jacob’s 1964 novel Antonia.

‘I’m not of the idea that the federal government ought to help everybody in each scenario. I do not consider in sufferer tradition, nobody ever stated life is truthful. 

‘But there are lots of people who’re struggling. The NHS and the federal government want to be way more conscious of the impression of all this on the carer,’ Tiggy says.

Tiggy and Johnnie fell in love just about the day they met. She was the no-nonsense, glamorous profession lady along with her personal manufacturing firm, he was the laid-again DJ whose Radio 2 present had turn out to be probably the most listened to drivetime present within the UK. 

When Johnnie developed most cancers she felt very alone. ‘He was nonetheless in his 50s, with all the things to live for, he hated being in poor health. 

‘I’m of the era the place you simply get on with it, however I additionally felt terribly ignored. There was no recognition again then of carers in any respect,’ Tiggy says. 

Johnnie is ready for demise and says he isn’t afraid and believes in life after demise

The couple are wanting ahead to being reunited after they’ve each handed away

Tiggy has help from Johnnie’s daughter Beth, an internet site designer, who lives an hour away and comes over incessantly to assist. 

The couple may rely on mates and different relations for assist, together with Tiggy’s brother, a chef, who usually comes over and cooks dinner.

They have a carer who comes on Wednesdays permitting Tiggy a while to herself which she typically makes use of to day journey to London to watch a play or have some down time. 

The couple nonetheless have dinner collectively and strive to preserve a standard life. ‘It’s a really tender time for us,’ she says. ‘It’s like our personal mini lockdown.’

‘To be trustworthy, Johnnie might live for one more six months and, on one degree, the thought terrifies me. I’m totally exhausted.’ 

‘You meet and fall in love and you might be equals,’ says Tiggy. ‘Then when Johnnie went to hospital after our honeymoon, it was as if I had turn out to be a mom and Johnnie was the kid, due to how the sickness had affected him, among the caring I had to do was repulsive.’

‘That’s a bit private,’ chips in Johnnie. ‘I’m undecided I need to speak about that. But it is true, this sickness is a little bit of a downer on the romance aspect of issues.’ 

The couple now sleep in separate bedrooms. ‘We used to journey an terrible lot, go to events. Now, we won’t even go to the pub.’

 The couple speak with astonishing frankness concerning the inevitability of what is about to occur. Tiggy is wanting ahead to fulfilling the plans she has made for her life after Johnnie dies.

‘When I married Johnnie, his profession undoubtedly took precedence. There was even an infuriating notion amongst some BBC producers that I used to be fortunate to be Johnnie’s wife. 

‘Now as I transfer into my 60s and Antonia is coming collectively, I really feel I’m coming again into my energy. I am unable to think about what will probably be like with Johnnie not being right here, however I will even be in control of my life once more. A little bit of me is enthusiastic about that.’

She has already contacted an property agent concerning the bungalow the 2 of them at present reside in.

‘The brochures are prepared to go,’ Tiggy says. She has her eye on a cottage a few miles down the street.

She is sure she will not have one other relationship. ‘There will probably be nobody after Johnnie. Because how might anybody comply with him?’

Johnnie is simply as matter-of-fact. ‘I want to die rapidly so that she can get on and make her movie,’ he jokes.

Sam came visiting from Australia in November and Johnnie has ready for the fact he most likely won’t ever see him once more. He has moved all his streaming accounts into Tiggy’s title and paid off the bank cards. 

The couple have even began selling Johnnie’s clothes on-line by the secondhand market Vinted. 

‘We have a proper chuckle about it,’ says Tiggy. ‘Some folks have gotten absolute bargains – the opposite day we bought a stunning Richard James dinner swimsuit for a music.’

Johnnie is mulling over whether or not to promote his vinyl assortment to put behind the bar for the wake. The funeral is finalised however the pair will not share their actual plans but.

‘I do not suppose we would like to reveal the main points. We want to maintain a showbiz component of shock,’ says Johnnie. 

‘Although Tiggy has stated that after the service she needs the hearse to go up the excessive avenue to the crematorium blasting out Springsteen’s Born to Run.’

‘You’ll be on your individual then, Johnnie,’ she reminds him. ‘I’ll be with our visitors. I do not consider in holding your hand till the final minute.’  

Tiggy says the BBC has at all times underestimated Johnnie, that it has by no means totally appreciated his abilities, though she is fast to level out they’ve been brilliantly supportive since he turned in poor health.

When he was first identified, Johnnie was fearful that listeners would hear there was one thing improper with his respiration, regardless that all the things was fastidiously edited.

‘For many individuals, Sounds of the 70s is a part of their Sunday afternoon. As lengthy as I can maintain doing the present I’ll. It offers me a objective,’ he says.

‘If I finished doing it I’d most likely die loads sooner. Anyway, whenever you play data you might be bringing again recollections for folks in addition to enjoying data that they love.’

For Johnnie, Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time brings again recollections of Tiggy. ‘She had Terry Wogan play it for me after I was first in poor health with most cancers. ‘If you fall I’ll catch you, I will probably be ready, time after time’. That sums all of it up, actually.’

Sir Elton John and Johnnie Walker collectively in 2004

Johnnie Walker informed his two million listeners he might die at any second

Both consider in the best to assisted dying, though Johnnie has a number of extra reservations than Tiggy. It is not, although, an choice for him. 

‘I’ve even stated, if I get a chest an infection, which might kill me in two or three days, I do not need to go to hospital. I need to stay at house.’ He is hoping he may die in his sleep. 

‘I’m actually spending extra time in mattress. I’ve acquired a hospital mattress arriving on Monday, which can assist with after I begin to battle with sitting up.’

‘I’m not afraid. I consider in life after demise. I do know I’ll find a way to look down on Tiggy. She’ll undergo loss and sorrow however she will even be free.’ 

Johnnie says he’ll miss ‘a good glass of pink’ and Tiggy’s ‘most lovely blue eyes.’ Tiggy says she’ll miss Johnnie’s ‘unbelievable sense of mischief.’

‘I by no means fairly perceive what Tiggy means when she says I’m a fighter. I’m simply making an attempt to live life. It’s the easy issues I treasure,’ Johnnie says.

‘Tiggy brings me slightly tray with some breakfast, we stand up, admire the view, speak about what we’re going to do with the day.  

‘Sharing time collectively is an important factor. As you get close to the tip, the conversations turn out to be higher and higher. Our caring journey, it is a love story.’