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LONGTIME RADIO HOST Michael Reade has announced that he has terminal cancer.
The 58-year-old LMFM presenter released a statement about his health after he’d been off work for six weeks.
He said of his diagnosis: “Sounds awful, I know, but you know, I’m oddly okay with it. I have reconciled myself with the situation that I find myself in.
“I am not devastated. I wish it wasn’t so, but it is – and this is not open to negotiation. It is not an argument I can win. In fact, there just isn’t any argument to be had.
“You know I thought, I could spend a lot of time being devastated and that, I’m sure, would be understandable to some degree but I thought, I just don’t have enough time left to do that.”
Reade was first on air 43 years ago at just 15 years old. He’s been with LMFM for over two decades, becoming well-known for his daily radio show that focuses on current events and debates.
He described his career as a “privilege”, thanking his listeners for tuning in.
He said his illness is “actually a blessing of sorts”.
“I am looking at things that might otherwise have passed me by and I am getting so much pleasure from some very basic, simple things. A smiling face or a kind word, a ray of sunshine, breathing fresh air.
“Being home with the people I love and knowing they love me, is priceless. There is nothing more important to me.
“Everyone is parking their sadness and doing what I have asked them to do. That is; to know I am okay with this and that I just want to surround myself now in love and positive vibrations.
“So, there is no sadness around me. All of us are trying to be strong. Trying to be positive and trying to help each other through this – best we can.
“I am not sure when I will get the chance to speak to you again but I do hope to be able to speak to you again soon.”
Reade is nominated in two categories at next month’s IMRO Radio Awards.
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I don’t see the issue here. Giving back to society after being jailed for taking something from it. Better than sitting in a cell playing the PlayStation.
@Luke Littler: I should’ve clarified, that part of my comment was inferring to the scr0tes in Irish prisons.
@Padhraic McLaughlin: Take it easy Padraic – you will have the Irish Council for civil liberties for prisoners and law breakers and that outfit penal reform on ranting for the evening.
Prisoners being useful to the community that the committed crimes against. A good idea.
They are trained and when released have new skills to help them stay on the straight and narrow.
Yu cannot pay them the same but they could be insured in case of serious accidents or worse.
A lot better than making coffee tables and cake stands like our lot do!
Cheap prison labour is economically important in the USA and it is not about Rehabilation or Giving Back to the Community. That is PR. It is a big part of why the USA has such a high imcarceration rate.
@Des Hanrahan: the so called ‘Land of the Free’
@Dave G Doe: Prison is about rehab, not revenge..
Now this might seem harsh, but I honestly don’t think that they should be getting paid at all. We don’t pay people for community service, why should taxpayers foot the bill for people who have committed even more heinous crimes which required incarceration? The fact that some inmates are getting $30 per day despite possibly being serial abusers or violent murders/robbers just doesn’t sit right with me. Incarceration is not meant to be a reward but a consequence of their actions. Taxpayers are already funding their housing, food, healthcare, and security, why add a paycheque on top of that for work that’s part of their restitution? Work in prison should be seen as part of paying their debt, not as an opportunity to draw a salary funded by the very people they’ve wronged.
A morally bankrupt country
@Fergus O’Donnell: should help with the DEI inclusion targets also !
Activity is part of helping people In institutions cope with waiting to get back on track. Laundries were a standard activity for girls gardening for boys but firefighting is another level.
The 13th amendment to the US Constitution is widely taught to have ‘ended’ slavery, but it merely converted it into “convict leasing”, and US prisons need a steady supply of prison labour so the US has one of the highest proportions of its population incarcerated, and all of the work they do is for profit, not for rehabilitation: https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-alabama-3b2c7e414c681ba545dc1d0ad30bfaf5 Of course, work placement can be an essential part of prisoner rehabilitation, but that’s not what’s happening in the US.
@Stephen Wallis: All work is for profit. Anyone who works for nothing will never be out of work.
Bodie will get the gal, it’s all gonna be just fine! Don’t look up!
some things never changed.
This is what you get when you prioritise paying for wars in foreign lands
have your say