Viewers have praised an ‘incredible’ mother who died of eye cancer and donated her body to medical science after she was dissected on television.
My Dead Body, which aired on Channel 4 at 10pm last night, televised the dissection process for the first time ever in the UK as medical students from Brighton and Sussex Medical School looked into the death of young mother Toni Crews from Deal, Kent, who died in 2020.
As the dissection, which was led by Professor Claire Smith, showed students examining the progression of cancer through Toni’s body and told the story of her life and illness, viewers of the groundbreaking documentary took to Twitter to praise the ‘awe-inspiring’ mother-of-two.
My Dead Body, which aired on Channel 4 last night, televised the dissection of Toni Crews, from Deal, Kent, who died at the age of 30 in 2020 after a battle with a rare eye cancer. Toni (pictured speaking in 2017) decided to donate her body to medical science after she discovered her cancer had spread and waived her anonymity
Describing the episode as ‘truly touching’, one viewer claimed she had not been able to stop crying since it started. She wrote: ‘As a parent my biggest fear is leaving my son while he is still so young, [Toni] must have been so scared. Donating your body to science is an amazing, selfless thing to do and a gift to everybody suffering.’
Another viewer said: ‘Don’t know how people can’t watch this. We all have a body, we all know someone who has/had cancer, we all know we’re going to die. Why not use this givgt that [Toni] has provided us with to understand more about cancer and the impact it has on a body.’
During the documentary, which was a UK first, Toni’s body was dissected in front of medical students who examined her brain, eye tissue and abdomen for tumours
Viewers of the documentary were incredibly moved by Toni’s story, which was told alongside the dissection footage
As the documentary began, viewers heard from Toni’s parents, Jason and Jo, who are now raising their daughter’s two children.
Although they admitted they struggled with the idea of their daughter’s dissection being televised, Jason said: ‘It would be wrong not to follow her wishes.’
As viewers watched the parents talking about Toni, they commended their courage.
One person wrote: ‘The bravery of Toni Crews and her family is incredible. Such an altruistic act will have such a positive and profound impact on healthcare education and future patient care.’
After Toni was first diagnosed with cancer in her lacrimal gland above her eye in 2016, the single mother had to have her eye removed. Lacrimal tumours are rare —around 85 are diagnosed in the UK every year — but while they can be benign, around 55 per cent are malignant like Toni’s and need urgent treatment.
During the documentary, viewers learned about how Toni designed her own line of glittery, gem encrusted eye patches because she couldn’t find any she liked.
Before long, she began selling the eye patches and was shipping them around the world.
A clip was shared of Toni explaining her business and why she decided to start making eye patches in January 2017.
The documentary showed footage of Toni speaking in 2017, shortly after her diagnosis and her eye removal, when she explained how she started customising her own glamorous eye patches
Toni (pictured after her eye removal) revealed she had always wanted to work in medical science and that she wanted other people to learn from her illness
Speaking to the camera, she said: ‘I was diagnosed with cancer of the tear gland last year and I chose to have my eye removed for the best chance of survial.
‘We found it quite difficult to find attractive eye pathes to wear to help boost my confidence.’
Jo also revealed that Toni researched donating her body to medical science soon after she was told her cancer had spread.
At the beginning of the film, Toni, whose voice was recreated using AI technology as exerpts from her diary and social media accounts were read out, said: ‘I always wanted to be a doctor or a nurse.
‘I was fascinated by the body and science, and loved all things to do with biology. I’d love for people to learn from my illness.
Viewers took to Twitter to share how they had been touched by Toni’s story and how it had been handled by Channel 4, with some saying it was the ‘most amazing’ thing they had ever watched
‘Life has a strange way of working things out.’
At the end of the episode, Professor Smith went to visit Toni’s parents in Deal, where she updated them about the discoveries she and her students had made while examining Toni’s body.
She revealed the team had found around 100 tumours in Toni’s abdomen as her cancer had spread, and insisted there was likely nothing more that could have been done at any stage in Toni’s illness which would have changed the course of events.
Professor Smith also told Jo and Jason which parts of Toni’s body the medical school had decided to keep for future teaching, including her brain, her heart (which was tumour-free) and part of her leg.
At the end of the episode, viewers were left in awe at the groundbreaking documentary and were full of praise for Toni’s selfless act..
One person wrote: ‘My Dead Body maybe the most amazing programme I’ve ever watched. To the incredible young woman whose strength, dignity and love for life even after her death, thank you.’
Another quoted some of Toni’s final words from the episode and said she was ‘selfless and remarkable’.
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