Michael Mosley update: TV doctor’s body to be repatriated as BBC says it will air last interview

Tragic details have continued to emerge about Dr Michael Mosley’s final hours after he disappeared on the Greek island of Symi, with his body discovered five days later.

CCTV footage has reportedly shown him making his way down the slope before falling over, with his wife saying that his family had taken comfort in the fact he “very nearly made it to safety”.

He’s altered the way she showers, stands – and even how she spends her free time. Which is why Emma Reed will never forget the health and lifestyle guru:

The former medical personality, author of the popular fasting diet known as the 5:2, had almost made it to safety before he died.

Emergency rescue teams, who were searching just 50m from where Dr Mosley was found, were clearly devastated as his body was carried away.

Volunteers and emergency workers tried to locate him from 7am until 3am for three days in a row – but had missed his body by metres.

Jannis and Sophia Volas, who have been married for 37 years and have two sons, were the chief volunteers leading the search operation.

The couple’s endless search took place through unrelenting heat over jagged rocks, where poisonous snakes were hiding.

The pair paused only to make enough money to support their family – Ms Volas working in a Symi bakery, and Mr Volas a plasterer and blacksmith – but their tanned faces and evident exhaustion showed just how hard they had searched.

Dr Mosley, 67, died of natural causes last week after he went missing on the Greek island of Symi, having gone on a walk in searing 40C heat without a mobile phone. Following a major five-day search, his body was found on Sunday in a rocky area near Agia Marina beach.

As Greece faces unusually high temperatures, concerns are rising about the lack of awareness among tourists regarding the risks of trekking in the extreme heat.

Following the death of TV presenter Michael Mosley on Symi, two other tourists are reported missing on Samos and Amorgos.

In recent days, emergency services have also been deployed to these remote islands to search for an elderly Dutch man and a US national who went missing while hiking.

Dimitris Katatzis, who heads the Samos rescue team, said that missions were often made more difficult because tourists, frequently unaware of the risks, “veered off track” to see sites and then got lost, the Guardian reported.

“Yesterday we saw a couple [of foreigners] walking a trail in 41C without hats,” he told local media. “It defies logic.”

With record-high temperatures already being recorded, local officials are calling for improved safety measures and better information for visitors to prevent further tragedies.

Eric Calibet, 59, had been vacationing on the island but was reported missing by a friend on Tuesday afternoon.

From the daily routine Mosley kept with his wife, to fighting insomnia and reversing his type 2 diabetes, Maria Lally, who regularly talked to the presenter, reflects on the man who always lived by the rules that he set for others, changing not only his own health but that of a generation…

Read Maria’s piece in full here:

David Blackmore, 37, who has worked as a producer and reporter for This Morning since 2015, was supposed to be interviewing the mayor of Symi when he arrived to find Eleftherios Papakalodouka boarding a boat at Pedi marina and jumped aboard.