A LEGENDARY BBC presenter has bid an emotional farewell in his final radio show, leaving listeners in tears.
DJ Johnnie Walker concluded his final radio show with the heartfelt message, “may we walk into the future with our heads held high and happiness in our hearts”.
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The broadcast included special messages from Sir Rod Stewart and his wife, Tiggy.
The 79-year-old veteran presenter signed off his final Sounds Of The 70s show on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday afternoon.
He had hosted his last episode of The Rock Show on Friday, during which he played some of his “favourite rock anthems”.
Walker announced earlier this month that he was retiring from radio after 58 years due to ill health, having previously been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
After playing Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now, he closed the show by saying: “Here we are at the end of a 15-year run on Sunday afternoon’s Sounds Of The 70s and 58 years on British radio.
“It’s going to be very strange not to be on the wireless anymore. But also, by the same token, life will be slightly less of a strain, really, trying to find the breath to do programmes.
“So thank you for being with me all these years and take good care of yourself and those you love, and may we walk into the future with our heads held high and happiness in our hearts.
“God bless you. And I’ll end with this.”
For his final song, he played Judy Collins’ version of Amazing Grace.
Earlier this year the BBC Radio 2 legend spoke about his terminal illness, sharing that doctors warned he could “die at any moment”.
The music show host has worked for the Beeb since 1969, and currently heads up both Sounds of the 70s and The Radio 2 Rock Show.
He sadly suffered from a heart attack in 2019 and had to undergo a triple heart bypass.
Just one year later he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which is a condition where inflation of the lungs means breathing becomes difficult.
TIGGY
As his health deteriorated Johnnie had to start presenting his radio shows from his home in Dorset, where he receives round-the-clock care from his wife Tiggy.
During Carers Week the couple opened up about what it has been like for them living with the possibility of Johnnie passing at any moment hanging over their heads.
In a heartbreaking segment on their BBC Sounds podcast Tiggy admitted: “I’m so tired. Sometimes I find it hard to go on.”
She also shared that for the first six weeks after his diagnosis, she was heartbroken and already grieving the life they had together.
Medical consultants told the couple that Johnnie should “prepare to go at any moment”.
Tiggy added: “It was only by going to the doctors and going on antidepressants that I have kept going, because I was crying every single day and I was overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of everything I had to do.”
Johnnie was contemplative when he spoke about grappling with death, referring to having “only a finite amount of time left here in the physical before I pass over”.
The radio veteran showed a huge amount of empathy for his wife, putting himself in her shoes during their nightly routine by acknowledging she “very lovingly helps me get into bed and gives me a nice kiss good night, and then she has to wonder whether I’m still going to be alive in the morning, which must be pretty hard for her”.
He went on to say that she saved his life when he had cancer in 2006, adding: “Your love was just so sustaining, it gave me so much to look forward to. And your caring for me now makes my life so much better.”