BBC Springwatch host Iolo Williams has recalled the frightening mile-and-a-half walk he was forced to embark on after he suffered a heart attack in the middle of the countryside. The 61-year-old felt pains in his chest while out alone and had left his phone in his car which was parked far away.
He said he had to take breaks on the way to his vehicle when the pain became too severe. “It came like a bolt out of the blue,” he said. “I knew what it was – intense pain under my sternum. It was a heart attack. And I thought well, I can’t go down here!
“So I walked on, crouched a little bit every now and again when the pain got a little bit worse,” he added to The Mirror.
“Got to my car, phoned for an ambulance and they said it would be 90-odd minutes, so my wife, Ceri, came down, drove me to the hospital and from then on I was in the hands of the NHS. They were superb.”
In October the broadcaster pulled out of filming his nature television programme due to the heart attack.
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Speaking to the BBC Radio Cymru at the time, he revealed: “I had a heart attack and it was very unexpected. I keep fit, I’ve been playing rugby ever since I was 45, I run two to three times a week.”
He added: “I was running along the canal and then I had a heart attack out of nowhere. I had to miss out on Springwatch, I had three weeks and a half back home. After three weeks and a half, I thought I couldn’t stay at home any longer so I went back to work.”
Earlier this year, he announced that he was undergoing surgery and would not be presenting on BBC Springwatch this year.
Posting on X, formally known as Twitter, he penned: “Unfortunately I can’t co-present @BBCSpringwatch this year. I had a stent inserted in April, which released a clot that, this week, caused an embolism!
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“My demise has been greatly exaggerated; thanks to brilliant friends, wonderful family & the excellent @NHS. Go Megan & team SW!”
He suffered major complications following his surgery to fit a stent in an artery.
Iolo is one of the most recognised faces to front the wildlife programme and has been presenting Springwatch, Winterwatch and Autumnwatch since 2019.
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