Heartbreaking.
Nika McGuigan’s father has left viewers heartbroken as he spoke about his late daughter passing away from cancer in 2019.
Appearing on The Tommy Tiernan show, Barry McGuigan sat down for an emotional talk with the comedian about the tragic loss of his daughter Danika.
Experiencing heartbreak during his life, losing his brother at 34, father at 52 and his sister last year, it was his daughter who passed away at 33 that the retired boxer wasn’t prepared for.
“For me recently it’s been awful because I lost my daughter two years ago. It has been shocking. It’s been shocking. I’ll never recover. My life will go on but I’ll never be the same,” the Monaghan native told Tommy.
Finally chatting to @Tommedian tonight is boxing legend Barry McGuigan 🥊@clonescyclone #TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/BiibOShxf4
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 8, 2022
“Family is everything to me. She was a great kid, she had a tough life. All her life, she had fever convulsions at nine months, she was dead on arrival at hospital but they got her heart going again. She had leukaemia at 11, they said she would never get through it and she got it…I will never recover from that.”
Nika suffered from acute lymphoid leukaemia when she was a child and then developed cancer when she was in her 30s.
“Dermot [my brother] was particularly bad but losing your child is just the most shocking, shocking thing. I’m very upset about it. I try my best not to, I think I don’t want to cry again. Tough, very tough. If this happened to me during my career I could have never continued,” he continued.
“People cry. Fighters cry. That doesn’t mean they’re any less of a man or any less of a fighter because they cry. It’s part of it.”
Nika was diagnosed with cancer only a month before she passed away in July 2019, which Barry said was “shocking, horrible time”.
“I’ve got four grandchildren. I love them so much. I love being able to spend my time with them as it helps me take my mind off the sadness we’ve gone through,” he said.
“They saved my life and my wives life after Nika’s passing.”
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