HE HAD THE BIGGEST SMILE

A kind soul and brave fighter who left a legacy of love - that's how radio and TV host Mark Pilgrim will be remembered

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA & MAXINE PETERS

ASK anyone about the kind of guy he was and you'll get the same answer: he was one of those people who made it cool to be kind and he did so until his final moments.

Even as cancer ravaged Mark Pilgrim, he summoned the strength to update his thousands of fans on his journey in the hope of providing strength and comfort to others going through a similar ordeal.

He'd done so before, long before the disease sank its claws into him a second time. Mark (53) beat stage 3 testicular cancer as an 18-year-old and when a matric boy came to the radio station, he took him under his wing.

The boy had also been diagnosed with testicular cancer at 18 and Mark shared his own story with him. "He told him how he'd gone on to live a normal life and have children," says Lloyd Madurai, managing director at Hot 102.7FM - the last station Mark worked at.

"The young man was so inspired by Mark's story and compassion that he completed his treatment and is now in America on a scholarship. And he's in remission."

Mark also wrote a letter to another young boy with cancer. "I had nine months of intense chemo sessions lasting up to four hours a session, Mark said. "There were days when I felt like giving up, days when I felt really low and I didn't feel like fighting for myself.

"But on those days, I thought about how my family would miss me if I was gone and on those low days, I fought the cancer for them."

And he fought it again after he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in March 2022, 33 years after beating testicular cancer.

Mark was given three months to live but he was determined to prove doctors wrong and sought every treatment going for the sake of his fiancé, Adrienne Watkins, and Tayla-Jean (12) and Alyssa (10), his daughters with ex-wife Nicole Torres.