FORMER Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas has opened up on the experience of losing his wife to cancer and how God helped him pull through.
The Premier League host’s wife Gemma died at the age of 40 just four days after receiving an acute myeloid leukaemia diagnosis.
Thomas was left to care for his young son Ethan and consequently took a step back from life in front of the camera.
Gemma’s sudden death left Thomas at rock bottom but in an inspirational interview he highlights how he kept going, re-found his faith and went on to find love again in new wife Derrina Jebb.
Thomas spoke to Streams Studio, saying: “We went from Monday night with her being diagnosed with a blood cancer of some sort. For a couple of days, things were looking OK, the treatment was going well but then things just cartwheeled out of control.
“On the Friday she falls unconscious and by 8:30 on Friday morning I’m being told by a consultant ‘she’s not going to see out the day’.
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“The very foundations on which your life has been built are trembling, there’s a massive life earthquake going on.
“And by 5.45pm on that Friday in November 2017 at the age of 40, with an eight-year-old son and a husband, she’s gone.
“The first thing I did when I came out of that hospital was I just sank to my knees and shouted at God: ‘Why? Why, why, why? Why’ve you left my boy without a mum, I don’t get it, I don’t get you God’.”
Thomas opened up on the anger he had towards his religion and how he collapsed to his knees at Gemma’s funeral before being picked up by a friend and a peaceful service occurred as he remembered good moments.
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However, Thomas was still struggling, saying: “I remember on the Saturday morning after funeral waking up as low as I’d ever been.
“I walked out of the house in my dressing gown and sat on this tree right by the River Thames at the end of the garden in Reading where we lived at the time.
“I felt like I was just in this fog of grief and pain and I leant up against this tree and it was only a brief moment, but this moment came when I felt this darkness so inescapable and so oppressive that I thought ‘I can’t do it. I cannot do this, I’m not cut out for this grief.
“I’m not cut out for being strong enough to navigate my boy through the next few years, and I just wanted to roll into the Thames. I kind of just wanted to let go of life for a minute.
“Thankfully, two things happened. I got an image of Ethan and I thought ‘I can’t, he’s just lost his mum.’
“But the most powerful thing that happened, was I looked to my left and had this really strong sense that there was someone sat there, and I could see the image of this man who was just looking at me, saying nothing.
“I could just see him weeping and then he was gone. To this day, I believe, and it felt so strong at that time, that that was Jesus sat alongside me.
“I felt like Jesus right there in that moment was saying ‘I understand, I’ve been there. I know what this feels like, I am going to walk you through this.’
“I remember feeling this surge of strength coming through me and I thought ‘I’ve got to get up, I’m going to walk back to the house, and I’m not giving up.'”
Thomas explained that he thought life would never be good again before remembering God gives second chances.
His opportunity for happiness came in the form of his new partner Derrina, who tied the knot in 2021 and have had a daughter named Talitha.
Thomas says: “To see how God has brought love into my life again with Derrina has been the biggest surprise but just an amazing blessing.
“I never thought someone 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 difficult premature period, and to see God at work in that situation, how he cared for her, cared for Derrina, cared for us as a family, and brought us through.
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“God is the God of second chances, God is the God who rebuilds lives, who brings restoration out of wreckage and that’s been the story of my life for the last five years.”
Thomas now works for Amazon Prime Video and campaigns to raise awareness for blood cancer, the fifth most common cancer in the country.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
