How a health scare made broadcasting legend Kevin Milne rethink his future

The former Fair Go host was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September last year. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

When television and radio presenter Kevin Milne signed up as a companion at Mary Potter Hospice last year, the former Fair Go host knew he'd be sharing life stories and final moments with palliative care patients. But the father of four hadn't expected to question his own mortality just weeks later when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"It went through my mind that I might have a companion myself before the year was out," admits Kevin, 71, speaking to the Weekly from his home in Raumati Beach, where he lives with his wife of 42 years, Linda, 64. "When you're in your seventies, you find out how you'll react to hearing it's all going to be over and I thought, 'Well, you've got to go somehow.' I've had amazingly good luck most of my life and a glorious family and beautiful wife. I can't complain, really."

Thankfully for the popular broadcaster, who is a regular guest on Jack Tame's Newstalk ZB Saturday Morning radio show, his diagnosis last September was followed by positive news.

"There are about five different versions of prostate cancer and I have the least worrying," tells Kevin, who had prostate surgeries in 2011 and 2012. "Once we established my type isn't one that travels, everything was cool. The doctor said he doesn't believe it's going to cause any problems and told me, 'You'll take it to your death – it won't take you to your death.'"

It's not the first time Kevin has battled ill health, having undergone open-heart surgery 15 years ago, at 55, followed by the removal of a benign tumour in his pituitary gland, which could've caused blindness if left to grow.

"Kevin's had so many things wrong with him and all of them could be fixed, but this time around I wasn't so sure," says Linda, a part-time kindergarten teacher and mother to the couple's kids, Alex, 37, Rory, 35, Jake, 30, and daughter Tommie, 19. "But we've been to see so many specialists and come out breathing a sigh of relief."

Today, as Kevin points out the aeroplane shape of Tokomapuna Island from his bedroom window, rattling off facts about the Kāpiti Coast landmark, he appears a picture of good health. Living beside the ocean suits the semi-retired Weekly columnist, who writes from an office in their cottage.

Tommie is visiting from Otago, where she's studying health and nutrition at university, and has filled her parents' spare room with all the clothing of a fashion-loving teen.

"I arrived in Wellington two days before the level four lockdown was announced and I spent it at my brother's place in Lower Hutt, before coming back home, because Dad's high risk," says Tommie, who is working as a waitress at a local café during the university break.

"When he told me about his cancer diagnosis, Dad kept it really chill. It was never a big deal and he just said to wait until the test results came back."

Tommie, 19, says her dad kept his cancer diagnosis 'really chill'. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

Linda, whose hubby was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 for services to broadcasting and the community, is used to Kevin's calm manner at home.

"I'm proud of what he continues to achieve and the things he's done for people," says Linda, who was rushed to hospital herself in 2013 with a brain haemorrhage. "On Fair Go, he sorted out some really big problems, but was empathetic and sympathetic.

"He's supportive and never judgmental, even when I flooded the entire house with a bit of home plumbing many years ago. It was a big cleanup and he didn't say a word!"

As family dog Freddie sleeps curled in a ball on the living room couch, Kevin chats enthusiastically about his volunteer role as a companion at Mary Potter Hospice in Paraparaumu.

"I spend three to four hours a week with a patient in their home and although you're doing it for somebody else, you're getting as much out of it as they are. It's like an instant friend," he enthuses.

"I've had one companion so far, who was about 80 and a real down-to-earth guy, but very different to me." Kevin admits when his companion passed away recently, it was hard. "It's probably silly because I didn't know him for long," he shrugs. "But you learn a lot about someone sitting and talking. He was a Londoner and because Linda's from London, we talked a lot about the city and about boats, or we watched telly."

Kevin says daughter Tommie keeps him young. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

Sometimes, the duo drifted off mid-chat. "He'd fall asleep and it was a nice warm room, so I'd doze off and think, 'I hope no one minds because I'm meant to be looking after him!' But we were just a couple of old guys napping."

Kevin's celebrity status didn't faze the former truck driver, who spent most of his life in the merchant navy. "He knew who I was, but didn't particularly care. I don't think he had much truck for the whole celebrity scene. We got on really well, but I could bore him quickly if I started telling him about TV stuff!"

Kevin, who worked on Fair Go for 27 years up until 2010, credits his openness about death to losing his father and big brother as a teenager. He was 15 when his dad died on his way home from work from a heart attack.

"It was on my birthday, but because I knew my dad had a bad heart, it didn't come as a huge shock," Kevin recalls. "But two years later, I was totally shocked when my brother Brian was killed."

Brian was 21 when he won a 1963 Young Mr New Zealand Competition. "He was a really clever guy, and the competition was to find the most talented young man and woman in the country, across all areas including academic, public speaking and sport," recalls Kevin, who jokes about his own poor school grades.

"The prize was a flight around the world and a year of American university paid for."

Kevin and Linda are parents to Alex, 37, Rory, 35, Jake, 30, and daughter Tommie, 19. Photo / Supplied

Brian secured himself a scholarship for his second year, while training for the Commonwealth Games in athletics. Two years after heading to America, at age 23, he was killed when a car he was a passenger in hit a tree. "I never got over losing Brian. All that talent, gone," Kevin shares, his eyes glistening. "But weirdly, after he passed, my life started to change from all this failure to success. It may've been because suddenly I couldn't sit back and admire the feats of my brother and get all my pleasure out of him. I needed to do something myself."

The broadcaster often wondered, though halfheartedly, whether his late brother was somehow still there for him. "I'm not religious, but I started getting really lucky. Not long after we lost Brian, I got into journalism school, even though I didn't have university entrance," he says. "I was on a course with the bank I worked at, probably about to get fired again because I was rubbish, when I saw a journalism course in Wellington."

Kevin secured an interview after a phone call with one of the school's tutors, journalist Judy Callingham. "Years later, when we were both working on Fair Go, she told me, 'I only gave you an interview because you had such a sexy voice on the phone and I was dying to see you," he laughs at the memory. "Then she said, 'Actually, when I saw you, I was bitterly disappointed.'"

Following an interview with a panel, including Dame Christine Cole Catley, Kevin was accepted. "I learnt Chris went home and told her husband she'd interviewed a man who works at a bank, and he said, 'For goodness' sake, Christine, put him on the course! Why would you ever want to be working in a bank? So, I made it in on luck."

Kevin, who was a top student alongside Mother of the Nation Judy Bailey, went on to be voted Second Most Trusted Person in the Country in 2010. "I wanted to say to my mum and dad, 'See, I'm not an idiot and it does turn out I'm quite good at something,'" he quips. "Why I was number two was a great source of joking around home, though a great honour nonetheless."

Kevin met Linda when they were both working at an Iranian Oil Company in London. Photo / Supplied

There's another running joke in the Milne household. "Linda looks far younger than she is and always has, which made for some hilarious times," tells Kevin, who met his love when they both worked at an Iranian Oil Company in London. "One of the things about English girls is the sun never touches their faces, so she has beautiful skin. The older I get, the bigger and bigger the gap appears between us, and it's kind of getting embarrassing!"

The couple, who are seven years apart in age, recall Linda picking Kevin up from work one day in her early twenties, and the receptionist thinking she was his daughter.

"They'd say over the microphone, 'Kevin Milne, your daughter's here to pick you up,' and the whole newsroom would explode with laughter," Kevin grins. "I'm very proud of her and think it's beaut she looks so young, but she's just not ageing."

Tommie, who will move into a flat with six other girls from university this year, even passes hand-me-down jeans on to her horse-loving mum.

"I've come to the conclusion at 64 that a lot of how you age is about luck," says Linda, who sometimes trains at the gym with her daughter."I try and keep fit and eat healthy, and it's great having Tommie, a young person, around."

Kevin couldn't agree more. "Suddenly, with the events of last year, it clarified a lot about life and what's important," he adds, heading onto the deck with his girls for photos.

"My family is the most important thing. I couldn't care less about anything else, including journalism, money or property. Family, that's what matters in the end."