Martin Roberts takes on ‘most worrying’ property project yet as he puts £500,000 of own cash into Welsh valleys renovation without telling wife
Martin Roberts is hoping to bring part of a Welsh valleys community’s heritage back to life by injecting £500,000 of his own money into a special project.
The television presenter and property expert, 59, is planning to renovate the local pub and has the keys to the Hendrewen Hotel in Blaencwm at the top of the Rhondda Fawr valley.
Owners of the much-loved village pub decided to close the business during lockdown and Martin snapped it up last year as he felt the community had ‘lost their heart’.
However, the property developer admits the task is his ‘most worrying’ yet and he says he decided not to tell his wife Kirsty about his plans so she couldn’t talk him out of it.
The Homes Under The Hammer frontman told WalesOnline: ‘I often act a bit on gut instinct, and possibly don’t always tell my wife because sometimes I think there’s a danger I will be talked out of things because they appear daft on the surface, I only sort of mention it when it’s too late!
New beginnings: Martin Roberts, 59, is hoping to bring part of a Welsh valleys community’s heritage back to life by injecting £500,000 of his own money into a special project (pictured in May last year)
‘I’ve never run a pub, I’ve never run a restaurant, and I’ve never run a hotel so, hey, what could possibly go wrong?!’
The former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! campmate is plowing a substantial amount of his own money into the hotel, saying he wants to turn the establishment into a ‘really funky and fun bar, restaurant and gastropub’.
He insists he will keep references to the history of the area and its industrial heritage in the hotel building.
Martin is also looking to open some additional accommodation nearby which will provide rooms with access for disabled people and wheelchairs, and three-wheel mountain bikes.
Along with the new accommodation, he is planning to expand a restaurant and village shop which will cater for tourists visiting the area.
It comes after Martin spoke out about being giving a ‘second chance at life’ after his near-death health scare last year when his heart, kidney and liver failed.
The presenter, 58, was hospitalised in April with chest pains that he mistook for long Covid, but learned he was suffering from pericardial effusion, which is a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart.
He had to have emergency surgery and has now thanked the incredible medical team without whom he ‘wouldn’t be here’.
Development: The TV presenter and property expert is planning to renovate the local pub and has the keys to the Hendrewen Hotel in Blaencwm at the top of the Rhondda Fawr valley (pictured in May last year)
He told The Sun: ‘My heart was giving up, my kidneys and liver were operating at 30 per cent and my lungs were weakening. I should have been on the scrap heap, so little inside me was working as it should.
‘It all seemed to happen so fast, there wasn’t time for me to panic. There was an entire team that saved my life.
‘I remember asking the surgeon if he’d ever killed anyone doing that procedure and he told me he had a clean sheet and didn’t intend to change that with me.
‘They saved my life and I’ll never be able to repay them. From the porters and cleaners to the surgeons, each and every one of them deserves this nomination. I’ve been given a second chance and don’t intend to waste it.’
Martin suffered pericardial effusion which causes excess fluid to clog up the sac surrounding the heart, known as the pericardium.
Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pains, discomfort when breathing, feeling light-headed or swelling in the abdomen or legs.
While the condition can be treated with medication, in severe cases doctors may perform surgery to drain the excess fluid.
Detailing his health scare during a previous appearance on This Morning, Martin told Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes he’d suffered chest pains for several weeks, but simply assumed they were as a result of long Covid.
Looking back: It comes after Martin spoke out about being giving a ‘second chance at life’ after his near-death health scare last year when his heart, kidney and liver failed
Pain: Martin was hospitalised in April last year with chest pains that he mistook for long Covid, but had pericardial effusion, which is a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart
He said: ‘I’d been feeling a bit poorly, under the weather for a couple of weeks. I’ve had a few chest infections over the last few years and I’ve had asthma since childhood, so I’m used to quite a tight chest.
‘As it approached the Easter bank holiday weekend, it was starting to get really bad where I could hardly walk without struggling for breath.’
He added: ‘The confusing thing about this, it’s a bit of a red herring, is that it gets you in the breathing side of things, so you don’t think it’s something to do with your heart.
‘You think, ”It must be something to do with my chest.” Then it’s the dangerous thing of playing Google doctor.
‘It looked like it could have been the symptoms for long Covid – real lethargy, a tightness in the chest, pain in the chest, difficulty breathing, so you pause it and pause it and by the time it got to just after the bank holiday weekend, I was starting to be delirious, putting letters the wrong way round, I said to Kirsty, ”We’ve got to go to hospital.”’
He continued: ‘There’s a sack around your heart and it was filling with fluid, it’s called a pericardial effusion and that in turn is something called a tapenade, which basically means this sack is squeezing the heart it sits around, so the heart isn’t able to expand, and therefore isn’t able to pump, so it means all of your organs start failing.
Grateful: He had to have emergency surgery and later thanked the incredible medical team without whom he ‘wouldn’t be here’
‘By the time they got to me, my kidneys were at 30 per cent, my liver was at 30 per cent, my lungs weren’t getting the oxygen and at any point, I could have had a heart attack…. The heart would have been strangled by itself.’
Martin added: ‘We’re talking minutes stroke hours of life left here.’
Asked what went through his mind, Martin said: ‘You just put your life in the hands of professionals. I’m lying there in the specialist cardiac drain unit – there’s a special operating theatre and there’s a local anaesthetic.
‘I’m watching as they stick a tube into the side of your heart and then with a big syringe, he starts pulling this dark red/black liquid, which is almost, I call death liquid, pulls it out and squirts it into a plastic beaker, pulls another one and squirts it in and I was just watching…’
What is a pericardial effusion?
Pericardial effusion causes excess fluid to clog up the sac surrounding the heart, known as the pericardium.
If the pericardium is diseased or injured, the inflammation can lead to excess fluid.
Fluid can also build up around the heart without inflammation, such as from bleeding.
Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pains, discomfort when breathing, feeling light-headed or swelling in the abdomen or legs.
While the condition can be treated with medication, in severe cases doctors may perform surgery to drain the excess fluid.
Source: Read Full Article