A MUCH-LOVED BBC Essex presenter has spoken out for the first time since being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Dave Monk began presenting on the station 39-years-ago and was told he had pancreatic cancer in 2023.
After successful treatment to beat the disease, Dave has now spoken about the cancer’s return.
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He told BBC News: "I'm not scared of death, but I'd rather it not to have come quite yet.
“Unfortunately a few weeks ago, we got the news that [the radiotherapy] hadn't worked either.
"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 going through the last stages."
The presenter was one of the first on-air figures when BBC Essex began broadcasting from Chelmsford in 1986 and interviewed public figures including Sir Tony Blair, Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Vera Lynn.
Prior to the return of his cancer, Dave underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy as well as a number of other treatments, which were initially successful.
He told the BBC that news of the cancer had come hard to both him and his 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.”
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