TV doctor Michael Mosley, who is known for appearing on This Morning and The One Show, went for a walk on Wednesday afternoon, but failed to return to home.
The body of TV doctor Michael Mosley has been found on a Greek island four days after he disappeared.
The body was found about 10 metres from the sea near a group of caves adjacent to Symi’s Agia Marina and appeared to have no signs of injury, Symi mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas.
Mr Papakalodoukas said he was out on a boat with media personnel searching for the caves when he spotted something on a rock above the beach.
He said he had taken a photo while driving and when he enlarged the image on his mobile phone he realised it was a body lying on a rocky slope.
The mayor also said the body appeared to have fallen down a steep slope and was lying on its back leaning against a fence with a stone on top of it.
According to Antonis Mistiroglou, a cameraman for state television ERT who was on the boat with the mayor, the body was holding a leather bag in one hand.
An umbrella was also found near the body.
Mosley’s wife, Dr. Clare Bailey Mosley, a general practitioner and cookbook author, said she was “devastated” to lose her “wonderful, funny, kind and intelligent husband”, but that the family was “comforted in the knowledge that he may have come very close to surviving”.
In a statement, she said “he had completed an incredible climb, taken a wrong turn and collapsed in a place where a large search team could not easily find him”, and described their life together as “incredibly happy”. He said the couple were “very happy together” and added that he was “incredibly proud” of their four children who remained with him, praising their “resilience and support over the past few days.”
Local bar owner Agia Marina, who was one of the first to find the body, said fire crews searched the area where the body was found on foot and from the air by helicopter on Saturday.
Marina noticed something unusual in the images taken from her boat and headed to the area by the fence to investigate. “They called me and said, ‘We saw something from a distance, can you go and have a look?’ So I went.
“I went there and saw what looked like a body. It’s not every day you see a body and this is not a war zone and it’s summer and you should be having fun and swimming.”
A police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, said a formal identification was still pending.
The body has now been examined by the coroner and removed from the island by boat. A post-mortem examination will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
The body was discovered opposite St Nicholas Beach, where Mr Mosley had gone for a walk on Wednesday after leaving his wife and friends.
The hike from where Mosley was last seen to the beach where his body was found would normally take about 30 minutes on foot, but extremely hot weather – with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days – has made the journey even more difficult.
Dr. Bailey Mosley and the couple’s four children plan to lay flowers at the scene where his body was found on Monday.
Earlier this week, she described the days since her husband’s disappearance as “the longest, most excruciating days.”
Mosley’s three sons, Alex, Dan and Jack, and daughter Kate traveled to the Greek island earlier this week to help with the search for their father.
The alert was first triggered when the 67-year-old doctor failed to return to a friend’s home in Symi Town. The phone and photo were shared in a local Facebook group with the question: ‘Have you seen this guy?’
The presenter reportedly set out for a walk on St Nicholas Beach at around 1.30pm local time.
Mosley was then seen on multiple CCTV cameras walking about 1.2km (0.7 miles) away into the town of Pedi and then around the island near Marina Simi yacht club. This was the last time he was seen.
He did not have his mobile phone.
A representative for the doctor confirmed his disappearance to the PA news agency on Thursday.
Rescue teams thought he may have mistakenly headed towards the rocky outcrops behind the marina.
Tributes also came from other celebrities including Dr Jamie Oliver, Phil Hammond, Professor Alice Roberts and Saleha Ahsan.
Saleha Ahsan, Mosley’s former co-presenter on Trust Me, I’m A Doctor, that Mosley was a “national treasure” who always made time to talk to people off stage.
She said he really cared about the health of the nation, adding: “Michael’s advice, the 5:2 diet, really changed the way so many people thought about health. He lived and breathed his work. He was an inspiration.”
Another of Mosley’s co-presenters on Trust Me, I’m A Doctor, Dr. Phil Hammond said Mosley had always been willing to take on challenges and was fearless in his mission to improve people’s health.
“One of the great things I’ll remember about him is not just the popularization of scientific explanations but the fact that he experimented himself… he was a man of his own accord.”
TV chef Oliver said he was “devastated” by the news and called Mosley a “wonderful, kind, helpful and gentle man” who “did so much good. His TV show and his research had a positive impact on public health.”
He called the TV doctor a “curious investigator, producer and presenter” who “changed the conversation on so many public health issues for the better.” Oliver concluded: “He will be greatly missed.
Tom Watson, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, described Mosley as a “hero”. The politician, who credits Mosley’s book, The Fast Diet, with helping him lose 40kg, wrote of X: “Words cannot express how shaken I am by this news.
“Through his courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people to recover, myself included.”
Adam Kay, the author, television writer and former doctor, said he was “desperately sad”, adding: “May his memory be a blessing”. She wrote to X, saying she had only met him at the Hay Festival two weeks ago: “It is so shocking how fragile life is…” I can’t believe he’s gone.”
Mosley was born in Calcutta, India in 1957 and studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford before working as an investment banker and abandoning his studies to retrain as a doctor, where he met his wife Claire
After graduating, Mosley changed course again and began training as a production assistant with the BBC, eventually landing an on-screen role. He was named Journalist of the Year in 1995 and has presented a number of shows for the BBC, guest-starred on ITV’s This Morning, and produced several shows for Channel.
He is perhaps best known for popularising the 5:2 diet – a form of intermittent fasting which helped cure his own type 2 diabetes. He has published numerous books and recently completed a series of theatre tours across the UK.
A familiar voice to many Radio 4 listeners, he will also be fondly remembered for his podcast Just One Thing which offers helpful tips on how to improve your health step by step.