The one lesson I’ve learned from life
Presenter Lisa Snowdon
SPOTTED by a model scout at 19, Lisa Snowdon went on to become a presenter for Britain’s Next Top Model and one-time girlfriend to George Clooney. Last year she took part in I’m A Celebrity… Now 45, Lisa designs jewellery and lives with fiancé George Smart, 38.
MENINGITIS MADE ME VALUE MY HEALTH
FROM the moment I woke up, I knew something was wrong. I had a blinding pain in my head, a piercing feeling like I’d never experienced before. It was a Saturday morning in October 2010. I’d been out for a steak and a bottle of red wine with a friend the night before, but it hadn’t been a crazy night — nothing to justify this kind of hangover.
So I ignored it. I took some painkillers and went back to sleep.
I carried on ignoring it for the next three weeks. I dosed myself up and pushed through it, even though with hindsight the pain was clearly telling me to stop.
But I was too busy for that. I was cohosting a breakfast show at Capital Radio so I hauled myself to work no matter how groggy, irritable and ill I felt, then went to the gym in the afternoon, where I’d ask my trainer to stretch my neck because it felt so stiff.
The moment the painkillers wore off, I was in agony. Still I ignored it.
Things came to a head in mid-November. It was an even busier time in the run-up to Christmas and I’d been asked to switch on the lights for London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. I remember walking on stage but everything after that is a blur.
It was my sister who took me to a GP, who sent me straight to hospital, where viral meningitis was diagnosed. I’d had it for almost a month.
The lining of my brain was inflamed and swollen (as was my face) and my body was in a state of near-collapse. I spent a week in hospital. In fact, it took me almost a year to recover fully.
It was the wake-up call I needed and it changed my life. I decided to look after myself better. Now I take myself off to yoga retreats whenever I can. Being so ill taught me never to ignore a strange new symptom, and that your health is the most important thing of all.