Allan Finnegan, the former Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist and Baptist minister, has died at the age of 59 after suffering from cancer.
He died on Friday from eye and liver cancer, surrounded by his wife Joyce and their two daughters, Beccy and Rachael, according to a statement shared on his official Instagram account.
"He bravely fought so hard to battle cancer for almost five years. We have the most precious memories as a family and will love and miss him so much," they wrote.
Finnegan, from Bootle in Merseyside, left school with no qualifications and initially worked on building sites before becoming a church minister and later a stand-up comedian.
He found faith as a teenager after praying with the father of an ex-girlfriend, a moment he said changed the course of his life.
In 2022, Finnegan began experiencing vision problems and noticed “flashes of light”, prompting him to seek medical advice. He was later diagnosed with ocular melanoma, a rare form of eye cancer, after tumours were found in both eyes.
Speaking to Premier's Next Gen, he said the diagnosis had affected his faith.
"The hardest bit was I couldn’t just say God didn’t exist. That would have been easier!” he said. “Instead, I had to rethink my faith, and I’m still doing that, but I’m happier with where I am now.”
He also spoke about how suffering had reshaped his outlook on church life and Christian faith.
“There’s a deeper richness to God,” he said. “Suffering has forced me to wrestle with lament and with rebuilding faith.”
He added: “Most of our churches want people to leave feeling good, but there’s value in being real about pain and struggle.”
With the illness no longer operable, Finnegan told the Liverpool Echo at the time that he was living “on borrowed time”.
His family later set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund further treatment, and said he lived longer than doctors had initially expected.
He is survived by his wife Joyce and their two daughters, Beccy and Rachael.