DESPITE remaining active well into his later years, Gay Byrne was forced to slow down in his final decade as illness began to take a toll.
The veteran broadcaster continued to feature on the airwaves with his weekly Lyric FM show, as well as popping up on TV from time to time.
But the self-professed workaholic — a mainstay on Irish radio since 1958 — had no choice but to take a break when he suffered a terrifying heart scare in 2011.
Gaybo was rushed to St Vincent’s A&E after he suddenly found himself unable to breathe, later explaining: “I felt that my lungs were made of concrete and there was nothing going in.
“I thought I was going to die, I just couldn’t breathe.
“My wife Kathleen rang the ambulance and was out on the road waiting for it to turn into Sandymount Avenue, while I was hanging over someone’s car gasping for air.”
Even then he was determined to get back to work, vowing: “I will just sit back, let Christmas happen and enjoy all the relaxing and festivities before The Meaning of Life starts back again.”
Although he was soon on the mend and back on his feet within months, the TV legend was then rocked when he had a heart attack in 2015.
Despite recovering from that shock, Gay stunned his listeners the following year when he revealed he was battling cancer and would have to take an extended break from his show.
The RTE icon endured a double-blow as he began chemotherapy at around the same time as he was recovering from two hip replacement surgeries.
Byrne struggled to adapt to the slower pace after his illness, and admitted his previous good health made it an even greater struggle for him.
HEALTH SETBACK
He explained: “If I had known ill health during my life I would probably have been better able to cope with being sick.
“The life I knew has changed forever. I can no longer ride my bike.
“I walk with a crutch, and am curtailed in my diet. The treatment is very heavy, and it really sets you back on your heels.”
Despite the latest setback, Gay remained determined to get back to work and told how he was recuperating well from the disease, although he spoke about contemplating his mortality.
AWARE OF DEATH FROM AGE 60
In an interview he said: “I have been conscious of death from the age of 60.
“You’re not aware of death when you’re 24 and you’re having a ball; unless there is some good reason you would be aware of death.
“When you’re 60 you start becoming aware of death and that you are in the final run-in rather than the beginning of the run-in.”
He added: “I have been aware of death, and very much, since I got this thing. There is nothing I can do about it.
“Following the treatment, maybe they will be able to cure it, maybe they will be able to arrest it, maybe they will be able to just hold it in abeyance.
“Maybe they will give me an extra year or two. I don’t know.”
’18 TABLETS A DAY’
He also opened up about his new health regime and admitted: “I have 18 tablets a day.
“So I am walking around like a pharmaceutical factory.
“They just play havoc, bloody havoc with me.
“I have been very difficult to live with, I know, but Kathleen has been really, really terrific.”
He added: “I get agitated over which I have no control. I know bloody well it is the chemicals.
“I know bloody well it is one or two of the tablets I am taking.
“And I have to take them because they are counteracting some other tablets.”
CANCER BATTLE
The legendary presenter never shied away from opening up to the Irish public and pulled no punches when it came to discussing his personal cancer battle.
In an interview with Ray D’Arcy he confessed: “What they kind of omit to mention to you is that chemotherapy is cumulative.
“In other words, for the first four or five treatments, it didn’t take much out of me.
“I thought, ‘Well what are they going on about, it’s two days of feeling sick and miserable and fluey’.
“Then number six hit me, and then number seven . . . and by God did they ever hit.”
GRATITUDE TO WIFE
He regularly spoke fondly of his gratitude to his wife Kathleen for her love and support during his years of health struggles.
“Kathleen is never-endingly good and kind to me and I hate to think of myself as being a burden to her and slowing down her life.
“She’s in remarkably good health, she’s amazingly active.
“She’s the same age as I am and I think this is our 54th wedding anniversary coming up in June.”
He said that when he “acts up”, Kathleen understands it’s because of his medication.
“She looks after me so well and she keeps an even temper and she knows that when I act up a bit, as I do regularly, it’s the tablets that are doing it, it’s the chemicals within you that are forcing all these things to happen,” he added.
“That’s the effect they have because I’m on something like 18 tablets a day.
“Some of them make me agitated and you get very worked up and you’re trembling a bit as if something awful is happening and you don’t know what you’re agitated about.”
HEALTH ENVY
Gaybo added: “The only thing I envy now is to see people fit and healthy and riding bikes and being able to walk the mountains of Donegal like I used to do.
“I want to get them and say, ‘Do you know how lucky you are?’
“But there’s no point in indulging in that because they don’t know. And I didn’t.”
REGRETS
Byrne continued to work well into his later years, health permitting, making occasional appearances on TV with shows including Once More With Meaning.
But he admitted his greatest regret was working for the state broadcaster for so long and on missing out on family time.
He revealed in a later interview: “I have great regrets.
“I have only brief memories . . . Thank God they were girls in so far as if they’d been boys it would have been very serious.
“I have only brief little snatches of memories of Crona and Suzy growing up around the place and I regret that.
“But generally speaking I regret now the amount of time I gave to this place.
“It was an awful lot of time and I should have taken time to do other things and I had the opportunity to do other things but I was dedicated to the place.”
FOUGHT TIL THE END
In one of his final interviews, Gaybo told how on some days he wanted to give up, but the Late Late icon refused to give in to cancer.
He told the Irish Sun: “What choice have I got? You either fight, or you lie down and die.
“Believe me, there are some days when you want to lie down and die, every cancer sufferer in the country will tell you that.
“But you do the best you can — and follow the treatment.”
FAMILY TRIBUTE
Gaybo again paid tribute to his daughters and wife who he credited for helping him get through his treatment.
He said: “I’ve the most incredible family.
“I couldn’t get through this without the love and support of my wife and daughters. They really have kept me going.”
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In October his beloved wife told us how the 85-year-old was soldiering on, explaining: “The treatment is ongoing but we’re doing our thing and we have two fabulous daughters who are really scaffolding around us and that’s a great help.
“But like everybody else we soldier on and we’ve met the most amazing people in the Mater hospital, not just the team and the wonderful nursing staff, but other patients that are all there with the same illness in different shapes and forms.
“His mood is very good, the sense of humour is still there.”
