He was a stranger on the television, but he felt so familiar.

Since Michael Mosley went missing on that Greek island, we were with thousands of people hoping that he would be found alive.

I felt like I knew him because I have his Fast Diet books on the shelf. It was his easy style, the joy of the health transformations he gifted people, how he changed their lives for the better and reversed his own diabetes.

Anyone who would swallow tapeworms in the interests of science is very brave or very mad.

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Once upon a time, I met up with an extremely dodgy salad in an extremely dodgy dive in the south of France. So, believe me, with the tapeworms Mosley took one for the team.

He was warm and funny in a slightly awkward way, surprising people at supermarket tills and picking out their sins among their shopping with a wry smile.

© The Irish News