Annie Mac has tearfully signed off from her Radio 1 show after 17 years at the station.  

The DJ, announced she was leaving BBC Radio 1 to spend more time with her family and focus on other projects earlier this year, and presented her final show on Friday.

In her last link, she had a touching reminder for her listeners.

She began by saying: “Thank you for having me, thank you for everything. I’m going to keep going, keep hopefully trying to bring you music in other ways, and writing, and what ever else comes my way, but the last 17 years have been the most amazing, magical experience.”

Annie continued: “Just one more thing I’ve got to say, as a 43-year-old woman, I just can tell you this – life goes by really, really fast. Life is short, it thunders by. And if you like the music, you’ve got to get up and dance. Just do it.”

Earlier in her final show, Annie told listeners that she knows “that I have done the right thing because it feels good, I feel at peace with everything”.

She added: “I’m not going, hopefully I will get a job on the radio at some point in the future.

“I would really like that and I’m still going to be doing other things.

“I’m looking forward to having the creative space to do new things and try new things.

“But being at Radio 1 is such a party. I’ve had such brilliant times with the other DJs over the years, I have made friends for life.”

Annie also noted that there are more women playing alternative music than when she joined the station.

“What’s great is that now, 17 years later, there’s so many,” she added.

She also credited Radio 1 with enabling her to get to know her now husband Toddla T.

“I started on Radio 1 in 2004 and have done a lot of things since then in my professional life and personal life,” she said.

“One of those was getting married and becoming a mother to two children, and it was thanks to Radio 1 that I got to know my husband a little bit better.”

She said that after meeting the DJ in a nightclub “I invited him on to the show to do a bit of an interview”.

Annie joined Radio 1 as an assistant producer before hosting her first show in 2004, and most recently presented Radio 1′s Future Sounds from Monday to Thursday, and Radio 1′s Dance Party on Fridays.

Clara Amfo is taking over her Future Sounds show, while Danny Howard will take the helm of Radio 1′s Dance Party.

Annie’s fellow broadcaster Nick Grimshaw is also set to leave the station after 14 years next month.