PUPPY LOVE

For a man who has overcome three heart attacks and then nearly died from renal failure while filming his latest TV show, Paul O’grady is surprisingly chipper.

The 62-year-old entertainer and TV host is back from India where he contracted a near-fatal virus after playing with wounded street dogs.

Not to mention a close brush with rabies and two weeks living in fear of a tapeworm infestation. But cracking jokes as always, he’s relaxed, happy and oddly, desperate to go back to Delhi.

“Getting ill was my own fault,” he says. “They said to me, ‘Keep off the streets, it’s Delhi’. But I was lying in the gutter with these two gorgeous little puppies.

“I’m feeding them by hand and flicking maggots out of a rat bite, and of course I must have touched my mouth or my face – you forget. When you work with animals, you’re not squeamish.

“At five o’clock in the morning I’m still vomiting. Ten o’clock at night, I’m still at it. They called the doctor and he said you’re going in because you’re so dehydrated. When I got in there, they said your white blood cells are going berserk, you’re heading for renal failure.”

Paul was kept in hospital overnight and was pumped full of saline and antibiotics.

“I don’t remember going into hospital because my temperature was so high,” says Paul. “I felt delirious. They wanted to keep me in for a couple more days, but I said

‘I’m off ’.

“I wanted to get back to work. I felt a bit doddery at first, especially being back to the heat and the pollution.

“It is so dreadful you don’t realise you’re not breathing properly. It’s like a pea-souper, it’s green and it floats.”

But Paul says he did not feel scared during his neardeath experience. “Frankie Dettori calls me Moggie because I’ve got nine lives,” he laughs.

Paul will soon celebrate the achievements of health service staff closer to home. He has just been unveiled as the host of the NHS Heroes Awards, presented by the Mirror and ITV.

The gala will be the highlight of national celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the health service, recognising the extraordinary achievements of NHS staff, supporters and volunteers.

While filming this latest series, ITV’S For The Love Of Dogs In India, Paul also handled a sick puppy with rabies, and

Mother with her litter in a street Paul rides in a tuk-tuk to job