Dr Michael Mosley has won a posthumous award during the Radio Times Screen Test Awards this week. Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, the wife of the late doctor, took home The Viewers’ and Listeners’ Friend Award – which was new at this year’s ceremony. This was given to him all because of his hard work and the way he “dedicated a large part of his broadcasting life to a one man mission to improve the nation’s wellbeing”.

In an exclusive interview with the Radio Times, Dr Clare Bailey said she was “proud” of her husband and that she knows he’d be “incredibly chuffed” to have received it. Accepting the award, she made a speech saying: “Michael was very brave, and he went out of his comfort zone very often. He, as you probably know, reversed his own diabetes, and very many 1000s of people did the same and in smaller ways, with just one thing, he helped people just live better, healthier, happier lives. I’m just so proud of what he’s done, and really appreciate that you are celebrating his life and his work. We have actually set up a legacy to keep that work going.”

Calling him an “extraordinary” person, she said that “he took things to a different level and I think people really trusted him and valued what he said. He followed the science, [and] so people followed his advice, and particularly because he often does a lot of the testing on himself in advance.

“So like reversing his diabetes, where nobody believed it was even possible to reverse diabetes. And in so many different areas, he really pushed the barriers and made a big difference.”

The 67-year-old died after he went missing on the Greek island of Symi in June. The author of the successful Fast 800 diet lost a stone-and-a-half in just 12 weeks and reversed his diabetes as a result. Dr Claire recently said: “I think reversing his own diabetes” was his proudest achievement. In an interview with the BBC she recalled: “He was a chocaholic, he asked me to hide the chocolate and I’m still finding chocolate in the broom cupboard, in weird places. He said he didn’t want to go onto medication until he had tried other things.”

BBC Morning Live’s Dr Xand van Tulleken explained on a segment of the show: “Michael shifted his diet to allow him to lose weight. He cut down on carbs and he’s not someone living with obesity” with the health expert explaining that the “fat inside your tummy, around your organs, that’s the stuff more likely to give you type 2 diabetes” than fat we can see on the outside does.

What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes?

• peeing more than usual
• feeling thirsty all the time
• feeling very tired
• losing weight without trying to
• itching around your penis or vagina, or repeatedly getting thrush
• cuts or wounds taking longer to heal
• blurred vision

What are the risk factors for type 2 diabetes?

• are over 40 years old, or over 25 if you’re from an Asian, Black African or Black Caribbean ethnic background
• have a close relative with diabetes (such as a parent, brother or sister)
• are overweight or living with obesity or are not very physically active
• are from an Asian, Black African or Black Caribbean ethnic background