Plasma injections have made me feel 30 years younger...

“I’ll be unconscious for that though, thankfully. I know it will be painful and I don’t want to rush my recovery, so I’m waiting for a time when I’ve got nothing on at all.

“I don’t want the pressure of knowing I have to be better for work in a few days’ time.”

He doesn’t want to leave it too long though.

“It’s exciting because I’ve been told that within three months I’ll be at the peak of my recovery and the max of what I’ll be able to do,” he says.

“I’d love to be able to go snowboarding once again.”

This isn’t the first time he has suffered with a health issue more commonly associated with ageing. In 2006, three years after he retired from athletics a blood test diagnosed Colin with high cholesterol.

“Even though I was relatively young, slim and feeling healthy, I wanted to get a benchmark of my general health so I went for a full MoT,” explains Colin.

“I never expected them to say my cholesterol was high but it was 6.1 when it shouldn’t be over five. It was such a shock.

“I went home and my mother broke the news that a lot of the family suffer from high cholesterol. Both she and my uncle have it.”

Looking back, Colin admits he might have let things go a little too much after years of focusing on being in peak condition.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’ve done 30 years of this, I’m not doing it any more’. I’d hated the fact I had to keep fit all the time and so it was a bit of rebellion.

“I used to eat cake like it was going out of fashion,” admits Colin, who is supporting Benecol’s Uncover Your Cholesterol campaign, which aims to encourage people to reconsider their diet and lifestyle by highlighting the fact that even the outwardly fit and healthy can be at risk of high cholesterol.

“It wasn’t like I needed to lose weight. I’m slight, as are my mother and uncle, but I still have to make sure I keep moving and cut back on dietary fats to keep my cholesterol at a healthy level.

“I’m in my fifties now so I really have to make sure I’ve got a real grip on what I’m doing every single day to get the right balance and avoid needing statins.”

For more information and advice about looking after your cholesterol levels, go to benecol.co.uk

It’s exciting and I’d love to be able to snowboard once again