Terminally ill people leave heartbreaking video messages for their loved ones in touching new docume
TERMINALLY ill patients leave behind heartbreaking video messages for their loved ones to watch when they’re gone in a touching new documentary.
The surprisingly uplifting My Wonderful Life follows the lives of four people, all now dead, in their final few months during 2015 and 2016.
We meet Karon Peters, a nurse from Somerset, who was approaching the end of a long battle with breast cancer when she sat down in front of the camera to record funny, poignant messages for her friends and family.
Upbeat Karon, a self-proclaimed “millionaire without the money”, revealed that she took part in the show to prove death doesn’t have to be miserable or a taboo subject.
She told how she planned her own funeral, opting for a “quiche and cake celebration” in a muddy field with guests kitted out in wellies and pyjamas over a traditional, formal affair with mourners all in black.
She died in November 2015, aged 52, and her husband of almost 25 years, Phil, 64, said she was “gutted” that she didn’t live long enough to record a final message for him and their four sons.
He explained: “She just wasn’t well enough. She was slipping away.”
He added that of all the people she left messages for, he was “the one who needed one least” as he knows how much he meant to her and “how deep their love was”.
During the Sky One show, Karon’s incredible courage shines through as she recalls the emotional moment her consultant broke the news that her cancer was advanced.
“I said, ‘’Throw everything at me. I will do anything for my boys’,” she explained.
But her messages are overwhelmingly positive and good humoured, with a message for her best friend Hannah not to forget Phil’s ironing, as “although he can do it, he will put it off”.
Another pal, Sally Blake, 44, who “cried buckets” watching her friend’s tapes, points out that was “Kaz” all over: “She never shied away from discussing her illness but it was always done with humour. I remember her talking about her funeral saying, ‘You guys can wear your wellies’. And we did.”
Phil, who had a cancer scare himself last year, described his wife, whom he is still lost without, as “irreplaceable” and “the bravest person I have ever met”.
Heather Hall, whose husband Lee appears in episode four, admitted she didn’t realise how much she would come to value getting his message after his death – despite finding it incredibly tough to watch.
She said: “When I watched I nearly fell to my knees. I felt myself buckling a bit. He told me he loved me, that I was his best friend, his soulmate.
“Obviously I knew that, but hearing it like that was special.”
Lee, 45, a retired serviceman from Newcastle, lost his battle with skin cancer in October 2016 – but was keen to spread the word to people to check out suspicious moles.
Another participant was Linda Banks, a teacher from Wigan, who recorded messages for her three children telling them how proud she was of them, and asking them to look after one another.
She said she was determined to be remembered as “funny”, as “no one likes a miserable b****”.
Son Tom Clossick, 32, said her videos were hard to watch and made them very emotional, but they’re glad they did it so the grandchildren can enjoy them.
The brave participants also organised surprises for the people they were leaving behind, ranging from sky dives to elaborate trips.
Linda organised for her mates to be taken back to a club they used to party in, where they bumped into an old teen crush, and she sent her “poshest” friend for a day out involving a tiara.
Meanwhile Ian Edmunds, who died at 56, orchestrated an epic Wizard of Oz-themed surprise for wife Christine, which culminated where he proposed to her.
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While they “never got to the end of their yellow brick road”, Ian sums up the ethos of the show by telling his widow: “Now it is time for you to live your wonderful life.”
My Wonderful Life airs on Sky 1 and Now TV on Thursday 15 February at 9pm.
In 2016 we told how crocodile hunter Steve Irwin wrote a heartbreaking letter to parents from beyond the grave.
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