Bradley: Doctors told me to lose weight or die
BRADLEY Walsh was told by doctors he needed to lose weight or his life could be in danger.
The 60-year-old TV presenter and actor has revealed that following a health scare he transformed his lifestyle by quitting alcohol and giving up fatty foods.
The Chase host said: ‘I produce too much cholesterol. It’s a silent killer. My heart guy said, “Look, Brad, if you start training, all that [cholesterol] will drop. You need to get fit.” I was a time bomb.’
Walsh, who at 14st 9lb was the ‘heaviest he has ever been’ at the start of the coronavirus lockdown, has since lost 10lb. ‘I thought, oh crikey, I’m gonna be bang in trouble here if I don’t lose the weight and start dealing with this,’ he continued. ‘I decided to get consciously stuck in. So, touch wood, I will be okay.’
The star, whose father succumbed to heart disease at a relatively young age, said he always worried that he too was at risk. ‘I had a hang-up because my father, Daniel, died at the age of 59,’ he told the Sun on Sunday. ‘I had it in the back of my mind that I just had to get past my dad’s age. So turning 60 was a bit of milestone. I was 33 when he passed away. I’d just done the Royal Variety Show performance which helped launch my career, but my dad died from heart failure two weeks after that and never got to see it.’ The former
Coronation Street actor is married to choreographer, Donna Derby. They have a son, Barney, 22, while Walsh has a daughter from a previous relationship. He hopes that being open about his diagnosis will encourage others to get regular check-ups.
‘Once you know it’s hereditary, you start having regular tests,’ he said. ‘Of course it’s a concern. Every couple of years I go and have a full medical at the Loughton Cardiac Clinic. I go on the treadmill and I have a carotid artery test which tells you how much furring you’ve got in the artery, which is a total game-changer.’
‘Turning 60 was a bit of a milestone’