Dr Michael Mosley’s last social media post included a warm nod to his wife Dr Clare Bailey before his body was found on the Greek holiday island of Symi.
The TV doctor and Mail columnist’s body was discovered in a rocky area beside Agia Marina today following a treacherous five-day search in the searing heat.
Dr Mosley had been with friends at Agios Nikolaos beach on Wednesday before going alone for a walk to the centre of the island.
On May 25, he wrote his final ever social media post, which was a response to a fan who asked him if he’d ever heard the Dead Ringer’s parody of himself.
Dr Mosley replied: ‘I have… I’m not convinced I really sound like that but my wife Clare says it is spot on.’
One parody, included in Series 21, Episode 4 of Dead Ringers, mimicked Dr Mosley’s voice and subject matter.
Health expert Dr Michael Mosley, pictured with his wife Dr Clare Bailey
On May 25, Dr Mosley posted his final ever social media post, which was a response to a fan who asked him if he’d ever heard the Dead Ringer’s parody of himself
The parody said: ‘I’m Dr Michael Mosley, Jolly Paddington. Bear of doctors. Except that I hand out fewer marmalade sandwiches and more diagnoses of type two diabetes.
‘This is just one thing. Each week, I’ll be showing you just one thing you can do to live healthier happier lives and possibly eke out your existence for a couple of extra months.
‘Last week I showed how we can improve our gut bacteria by eating out of a drain.
‘This week I’ll be looking at just one thing you can do to recover from seeing the Matt Hancock CCTV footage. My one simple tip is gouge out your eyes.
‘Join me next week and I’ll be seeing a daily round of Russian roulette. Can help with mindfulness, cheerio.’
Paying an emotional tribute to her husband of nearly 40 years today, the health guru’s wife Dr Bailey said: ‘I don’t know quite where to begin with this. 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. I am incredibly proud of our children, their resilience and support over the past days.
‘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.
‘We’re taking comfort in the fact that he so very nearly made it. He did an incredible climb, took the wrong route and collapsed where he couldn’t be easily seen by the extensive search team.’
In a tribute to her husband, Dr Bailey said: ‘It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband’
Dr Mosley with his wife Dr Clare Bailey on their wedding day in 1987 nearly 40 years ago
Mountain route that Dr Michael Mosley would have walked on
This is the picture of Dr Mosley posted with an appeal after he went missing while walking on holiday in Greece on Wednesday
Dr Bailey, who shares four children with Dr Mosley, added: ‘Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special. We are so grateful to the extraordinary people on Symi who have worked tirelessly to help find him.
‘Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked. We’re also very grateful to The Press who have dealt with us with great respect.
‘I feel so lucky to have our children and my amazing friends. Most of all, I feel so lucky to have had this life with Michael.’
Mimi Spencer, who co-authored The Fast Diet with Dr Michael Mosley, also paid tribute to Dr Mosley as ‘immediately likeable, genuinely funny’ and said she will ‘miss him terribly’.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, she said: ‘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.
‘He had a brilliant line in tangential anecdote which comes out of his broadcasting as well, that his mind would go down rabbit holes and come out with fantastic snippets of information, and talking to him in person was much like that, you never quite knew where you were going to arrive, but the journey was always fascinating.’
She said Mosley ‘used himself as a human guinea pig’, and said he was ‘fascinated by the science of it’.
Ms Spencer said she believes the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan and The Fast Diet gave him so much joy ‘because it benefited so many people’.
Ms Spencer added: ‘Funnily enough in person, he could also be quite self-deprecating, and actually quite shy. So he never blew his trumpet, he was quite a humble person.
‘I think when he had success, whether it was on the TV or through his books, he was rather thrown by it, he wasn’t expecting it, and that speaks to the man really; that he kept that humility throughout.’
2021: Dead Ringers spoofs ‘Paddington bear of doctors’ Michael Mosley
The resort of Agia Marina, the location where Dr Mosley’s body was found
Police arrived at Agia Marina around 20 minutes after the body was discovered lying face up about 90 metres from the coastline. At around 2.09pm local time, firefighters arrived at the marina by boat and carried an orange stretcher and large black bag to where the body was found.
Other people wearing plain clothes got off the white speed boat and took briefcases up the rocky hill.
After around half an hour a party of six firefighters carefully gathered Dr Mosley’s body and placed it onto the orange stretcher.
It was then taken down to a jetty and loaded onto a small white tender and taken away to a mortuary on the island of Rhodes for a postmortem.
Two forensic officers remained at the scene examining the area where the body was found and the refused to comment as they left.
Just after 2pm local time the coroner’s team arrived and wearing face masks they began to investigate examine the body and the scene around it.
One could be seen taking pictures of the area and he occasionally paused to adjust the face mask he was wearing with his gloved hands.
Minutes later a group of three rescuers also arrived carrying an orange plastic stretcher.
At one point two of the coroner’s party appeared to have picked up a rucksack which was separate from the body around 20ft away.
It earlier emerged that Dr Mosley’s grown-up children Alex, Jack, Dan and Kate were just 350ft away from where the body was found when they retraced their father’s steps yesterday.
It appeared the Mail columnist had walked around the perimeter of the beach bar at Agia Marina and was heading towards the sea.
Temperatures at the time were around 37c and though he had a bottle of water with him the heat would have made it incredibly difficult.
It appeared that he may have been trying to reach the sea as his body was just a few feet from the shore. A source said the distinctive umbrella he had been carrying at the time was close to him.
At the time of his disappearance there was an excessive heat warning from the Greek Meteorological office, with temperatures predicted to hit a blistering 38c – unusual for early June.