BBC radio presenter reveals terminal diagnosis

One of the original BBC Essex broadcasters has spoken publicly for the first time since being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Dave Monk, who presented on the radio station for 37 years, was told he had pancreatic cancer just a few months after retiring in 2023.

Despite initially beating it through several operations and treatments, the cancer has returned and spread.

"I'm not scared of death, but I'd rather it not to have come quite yet," he told the BBC in an emotional interview.

Dave was one of the first voices on-air when BBC Essex started broadcasting from Chelmsford in 1986, and went on to present programmes across the station's output.

He interviewed dozens of household names, including Sir Tony Blair, Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Vera Lynn, and was the designated first local voice on air after the death of Elizabeth II.

He learned live on radio who his grandfather was - a Canadian pilot killed during World War One - a story which led him to Canada to meet his extended family, and to France where he met President Macron who had heard of his story.

He was told he had pancreatic cancer the day before his birthday.

"We thought it was just gallbladder problems, so it was completely out of the blue," he said.

Dave underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy in total, as well as a pancreaticoduodenectomy, also known as the Whipple's procedure - which removed parts of his pancreas and bile duct, his gallbladder and duodenum, and part of his stomach.

"That worked for about four months."

Stereotactic radiotherapy followed - a targeted high-dose form of radiation treatment - in a final attempt to get rid of the cancer.

"Unfortunately a few weeks ago, we got the news that [the radiotherapy] hadn't worked either," Dave said, becoming emotional.

"The cancer has now grown on the pancreas and it's spread to the lungs, liver and various other bits of the body.

"They've decided there's nothing more they can do, so I'm under the wonderful care of Farleigh Hospice and [I'm] going through the last stages."

Dave said he coped with his initial diagnosis "pretty well", and that having reached his 70s, "that's alright".

"I've had a great life, I've met some wonderful people, I've done some fantastic things."

But he said the news the treatment had failed "came really hard" to him and wife Caroline.

"I don't want to die - my God, I don't want to die - because both of us had started making plans again, and that was the problem," he said.

"We were lulled into a false sense of security that we could make plans again, and now we can't.

"But then you've just got to come to terms with the fact that we are all going to die, and mine is going pretty fast now."

Dave - who also did TV work on BBC Look East and the regional politics show - was determined to see his memoirs published, which he wrote during his treatment.

The book went on sale on Amazon last month.

In it, he also takes readers back to his more formative years, running a law practice as a solicitor, managing a wine bar and moonlighting as mobile DJ Dave (The Mad) Monk.

Speaking about his 37 years at BBC Essex, Dave said it had "become my life".

"The people in it became my people, the listeners became my listeners, and it's probably the most important thing that's happened to me in life," he reflected.

"You just have to look back on your life and say, 'Have I done all the things I wanted to do?'.

"Do you know what - for the most part, I have, so I'm a very, very lucky person."

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