Michael Mosley’s widow has said she wants to “honour” his work and ensure his legacy makes it “much easier for people to live healthier lives”.
Mosley, whose career as a broadcaster focused on helping people improve their health, died last month at the age of 67 while on holiday in Greece.
Dr Clare Bailey said her husband would have been “stunned” by the scale of the public reaction to his death.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Bailey, a GP turned health columnist and author, said her husband’s legacy was “really valuable”.
“I’m still overwhelmed by the response from people all over the country, all over the world, and it’s just extraordinary. He was a pretty quiet, humble man and to have that kind of response is just extraordinary. And I hope that we can find some really positive changes in the future.”
Bailey said she had only just begun to read the huge volume of letters that came in after his death from fans of his work and found it “so heartening” to hear how much of a difference he made to people’s lives.
“One of the tributes I (read) was, ‘I’ve honestly never felt so sad about the passing of someone I don’t actually know. I feel like I’ve lost a friend.’ And I think that kind of sums up how he related to people,” she said.
Bailey, who wrote cookbooks to complement her husband’s diet books, said of his legacy: “We want to honor his work… I feel like his legacy is really valuable.
“Nutrition is still not taught consistently in medical school. And so there are so many gaps that can be improved across the board using the latest evidence and making it much easier for people to live healthier lives.”
When asked what he would have made of the scale of the reaction, she said: “He would have been amazed. He didn’t seek the limelight, he was quite shy, but he loved what he did and was very good at it.”
Moseley’s BBC Radio 4 programme Just One Thing used one simple tip each episode to improve the nation’s health and he promoted intermittent fasting as a way to tackle weight gain.
She described the impact of his advice and how he experienced it: “We all stand on one leg and I take cold showers. Mike took cold showers. He made a lot of noise about it – he sang loudly and obnoxiously, but melodically.”