MUMBAI: Following a days-long search, the body of Dr. Michael Mosley, a British TV host and author, was found on a Greek island on Sunday morning, according to his family. Mosley vanished on the island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon, but a group of people on a boat, including journalists and the mayor of the locality, saw him among rocks on a rugged part of the coast.
Mosley's wife said that her husband went on a hike in the wrong direction and fell just before reaching a marina in a location where his body couldn't be easily seen.
“Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special,” Dr. Clare Bailey Mosley said in statement. “It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.”
Mosley, 67, was well-known in Britain for his numerous BBC shows, frequent radio and television appearances, and his Daily Mail newspaper column. His 2013 book "The Fast Diet," which he co-wrote with journalist Mimi Spencer, made him well-known outside of the United Kingdom. To help people lose weight quickly, the book recommended the so-called "5:2 diet," which called for minimizing calorie intake two days a week while eating properly the other five.
He subsequently introduced a rapid weight loss program and made several films about diet and exercise. Mosley often pushed his body to extreme lengths to see the effects of his diets and also lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary “Infested! Living With Parasites.”
Even before the body’s identity was confirmed, tributes poured in for Mosley.
“In person he was very much the sort of figure that you would see on television: immediately likeable, genuinely funny, enthusiastic, he had this innate enthusiasm about life and he was always very generous with his time," his co-author Spencer told BBC Radio 4. “He never blew his trumpet, he was quite a humble person.”
Tom Watson, former deputy leader of Britain’s Labour Party, called Mosley a hero and said he lost nearly 100 pounds (45 kilograms) following one of the doctor’s diet books.
“It’s hard to describe how upset I am by this news,” Watson said on the social media platform X. “Through courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people get well and healthy. I’m one of them.”
Dr. Saleyha Ahsan, who was co-host on “Trust Me, I’m A Doctor,” said Mosley had a talent for putting people at ease and explaining science to a general audience, “not just a niche scientific crowd, but to everyone.”
“Michael’s a national treasure and he’s so personable,” Ahsan told the BBC.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said Mosley’s research and TV shows had served the public well and changed the conversation around health issues.
“What a wonderfully sweet, kind and gentle man he was,” Oliver said on Instagram.
Clare Bailey Mosley expressed her gratitude to the Symi islanders, claiming that they had searched all over for him.
“Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked,” she said. “My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.”
The island's mayor, Lefteris Papakalodoukas, told The Associated Press that he and several journalists were on a boat when they noticed a body approximately 65 feet (20 meters) above the Agia Marina beach. He reported finding Mosley face-up next to a fence.
“We zoomed with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said.
The marina's bar manager, Ilias Tsavaris, said that he scrambled up the hillside after receiving a call from the boat seeking confirmation of the sighting.
“When I walked up I saw something like a body," he said. “You don’t see a dead body everyday, it is not a warzone, it’s summer, you are supposed to have fun and swimming.”
One policeman collapsed on the slope while retrieving Mosley's body and had to be taken away on a stretcher, according to reports from the local media. For an autopsy, the body will be transferred to the neighboring island of Rhodes. Mosley and his wife a writer and health columnist, are parents of four children.
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Credit- Hindustan Times
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