Simon Thomas opened up about the traumatic experience of losing his first wife to cancer in 2017, and how God brought “love” back into his life with Derrina Jebb.
The former Sky Sports presenter described the pangs of his grief in an emotionally charged interview, after his wife, Gemma, passed away within four days of being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.
Gemma’s death in 2017 at the age of 40 resulted in what Thomas describes as a ‘life-earthquake’, and as a result of her passing he took time off to care for his eight-year-old son, effectively tearing up his contract with Sky.
The 50-year-old spoke of the rapid progression of his wife’s illness and the profound impact it had on his life – including his struggle with his own faith.
“We went from Monday night when she was diagnosed with some sort of blood cancer. Things looked good for a few days, the treatment went well, but then things just spiraled out of control.
Simon Thomas revealed the pain he felt after the death of his first wife and how his faith helped him recover
Gemma died in November 2017 at the age of 40 and is survived by Thomas and their son Ethan
Thomas has remarried Derrina (right), and the couple have had their first child together
‘On Friday she falls unconscious and on Friday morning at 8.30 a consultant tells me ‘she will not live to see the day again’.
“The foundations on which your life is built are shaking, there is a huge earthquake going on. And at 5:45 p.m. on that Friday in November 2017 at the age of 40, with an 8-year-old son and a husband, she is gone.
“The first thing I did when I got out of that hospital was I got down on my knees and screamed to God, ‘Why? Why why why? Why did you leave my boy without a mother, I don’t get it, I don’t get you God!”‘.
Thomas then talks about the anger he felt in the weeks following Gemma’s death, and struggling with his own faith, after praying to God for his wife to recover.
And during his wife’s funeral service, Thomas describes how he fell to his knees again as he struggled with the reality of Gemma’s death, before a prayer from a friend, Carl, helped him find peace.
The former Sky Sports presenter talked about how a deep peace fell during the rest of the service, and he was able to recall all the happy memories of his time with Gemma.
But that short rest didn’t make the days and weeks that followed any easier for him, and Thomas tells of one morning when the weight of his grief felt insurmountable, before a religious experience helped him find strength.
His late wife Gemma died within four days of receiving an acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis in November 2017
The 50-year-old took a step back from his career in the wake of his wife’s death, having previously been Sky Sports’ main football presenter.
“I remember waking up on the Saturday morning after the funeral as low as I had ever been, I walked out of the house in my dressing gown and sat down in this tree just by the River Thams at the end of the garden in Reading where we lived at the time.
“I felt like I was just sitting in this fog of sadness and pain and I leaned against this tree and it was just a brief moment, but this moment came when I felt this darkness so inescapable and so oppressive that I thought, ‘I can ‘ I will not do it! I can’t do this, I’m not fit for this sorrow’
‘I’m not fit to be strong enough to see my son through the next few years, and I just wanted to roll into the Thames. I just wanted to let go of life for a while.
“Fortunately, two things happened: I got an image of Ethan and I thought, ‘I can’t do it, he just lost his mom.’ But the most powerful thing that happened was I looked to my left and felt very strongly that someone was sitting there, and I could see the image of this man who just looked at me and said nothing.
“I just saw him cry. And then he was gone! To this day I believe, and it felt so strong then, that it was Jesus sitting next to me. I felt like Jesus was saying right there, “I understand, I’ve been there. I know what this feels like, I’m going to walk you through this.”
“I remember feeling this wave of strength come through me and I thought, ‘I have to get up, I’m going to walk back home and I’m not giving up.'”
The couple had been married for 12 years before she died and lived in Reading before her death
While he admits life didn’t get any easier despite the boost this experience gave him, Thomas made peace with the fact that his life would never be the same again and set himself the goal of being the best father he could for his son. could be.
The 50-year-old describes how he came to realize that the God he believes in is a God of second chances, and brought love back into his life in the form of his second wife, Jebb.
Thomas and Jebb married in 2021 and have a daughter, Talitha, together.
“Seeing how God brought love back into my life with Derrina was the biggest surprise, but just an amazing blessing. I never thought anyone would love me, way too much baggage. And yet he has brought restoration in terms of love.
And now to have a daughter, who came through a really rough premature period, and to see God at work in that situation, how he took care of her, took care of Derrina, took care of us as a family and got us through it helped.
“God is the God of second chances, God is the God who rebuilds lives, who restores from wreckage and that has been the story of my life for the past five years.”
Thomas stopped presenting almost immediately after his wife’s death and was not seen on screens for three years.
Thomas left Sky Sports to take time out after losing wife Gemma to cancer in November 2017
He has since rebuilt his career, now often seen on channels such as Amazon Prime Video.
Simon has also stated that people are not aware of the symptoms of blood cancer as if it were breast cancer, despite it being the fifth most common cancer in the UK with over 40,000 people diagnosed with it each year.
Speaking about how he dealt with his wife’s death, Simon said he and his son Ethan both had counseling sessions for about two years.
He told The sun“We both benefited from having people to talk to, and we both worked with our individual counselors for two years.”