Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch star Dale Bowes dies aged 28

Presenter Steph McGovern said on social media she was ‘gutted’ to hear the news

Steph’s Packed Lunch star Dale Bowes has died aged 28.

Dale was best known for appearing as a lunchmate on the daytime Channel 4 TV show, fronted by presenter, Steph McGovern, in 2023.

The 28-year-old had been dealing with incurable synovial sarcoma of the left lung since 2021 and had undergone surgery and chemotherapy treatments to help him manage it.

McGovern shared the news on X/Twitter on Wednesday (10 April), saying she was “gutted” to hear of Bowes’s death.

“Dale was one of our fabulous lunchmates who always brought so much wisdom and joy to the show, even in the middle of his brutal cancer treatment,” she said.

Talk TV’s Gavin Wilson shared sympathies on social media, and said: RIP Dale. A much loved Lunchmate of our @StephLunch @PackedLunchC4! Family!”

Steph’s Packed Lunch, which aired on weekdays at midday until the show was cancelled late last year, featured celebrity guests, discussions, games and cookery segments.

Dale Bowes on the Steph’s Packed Lunch set (Instagram via @mrdalebowes)

In March 2023, Bowes spoke on Steph’s Packed Lunch about his cancer treatment, during a discussion about assisted dying.

“I’ve been battling it [cancer[ for one-and-a-half years now and I’ve been told current treatments will not cure it,” he said at the time, before going on to express his support for assisted dying for terminally ill people.

Channel 4 announced last October that it was cancelling Steph’s Packed Lunch due to “difficult decisions”. When the final episode aired in December 2023, Bowes thanked Instagram followers for tuning in.

Dale Bowes and Steph McGovern behind the scenes on the ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’ set (Dale Bowes/Instagram)

“And that’s the end of our beloved Steph’s Packed Lunch. I bawled my eyes out when I saw myself in the montage at the end. Thank you to everyone who watched the show and I send all my love out to viewers, fellow lunchmates, cast and crew,” he said.

“Channel 4 have made a mistake but unfortunately it feels like our words fall on deaf ears.”

According to a GoFundMe page set up by Bowes’s friend, the TV star had been an aspiring geography teacher.

“Dale’s journey of life has been a fight from the start. Growing up, Dale was a happy, lively and extroverted child who loved to play pranks and take leadership roles within his friend groups,” his friend Declan McColl wrote on the page.

Bowes appearing as a lunchmate on the daytime programme ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’ (Dale Bowes/YouTube)

In March, McColl shared an update saying that specialists had run out of treatment options for Bowes and was receiving end-of-life care at a hospice.

“Dale continued to get worse until he was admitted into St Gemma’s Hospice on the 25th of March 2024 for end of life care,” the update said.