Countdown to Derryn Hinch's return to public life

Derryn Hinch and wife Chanel. Picture: Herald Sun

AFTER almost five months of court imposed silence, Derryn Hinch is preparing to make himself heard again.

The countdown is on until Hinch returns to the 3AW airwaves on December 21, after completing the home detention sentence imposed in July a matter of days after he underwent a life-saving liver transplant, the Herald Sun reported.

The broadcaster's world has been confined to his apartment on St Kilda Rd, with court sanctioned trips to the Austin Hospital and a legally approved hour of walking in his courtyard, of his apartment block, the only variations.

A friend of the Human Headline said he was making a strong recovery from his transplant and was looking forward to celebrating his release, and his second chance at life, with his wife Chanel.

Because Chanel lives in a different apartment to Hinch she has only been able to visit her husband during his detention.

Christmas will be emotional for the couple. Hinch was told in March he would not live to see Christmas if he did not urgently receive a donor liver.

The couple are believed to be planning to spend New Year's Eve at Crown's annual gala dinner.

Last year at the event Chanel asked her ailing husband what his resolution was for 2011.

He told her all he wanted was to be alive and sitting with her at Crown on New Year's Eve celebrating the arrival of 2012.

Hinch, according the friend, has kept busy during the past months, working on a book about his health crisis, subsequent transplant and then detention with the working title A Tale of Life, Death, Hope and House Arrest.

He has also brushed up his cooking skills, walks 2km daily on a treadmill, and has become a green thumb thanks to a balcony herb garden that he tends daily.

The thing he has missed most during his sentence, said the friend, has been his Saturday night date with Chanel, where they select a different top restaurant to try each week.

Yesterday Hinch ventured briefly to the Austin Hospital for a check-up following minor surgery last week.

He looked far healthier than when he was last sighted in public in July, before he started his sentence.