BBC music star, 39, tells of stroke anguish
BBC presenter Clemency BurtonHill has revealed she suffered a serious brain haemorrhage after collapsing at work.
The presenter of Radio 3’s Classical Fix had emergency brain surgery earlier this year after she passed out during a meeting in New York, where she is creative director of classical station WQXR.
She suffered a haemorrhage caused by a previously undiagnosed arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an uncommon and abnormal cluster of blood vessels in her brain.
The 39-year-old, who was unconscious for 17 days, told how music was played to her 24 hours a day through a small speaker next to her bed and said that, just before she regained consciousness, she seemed to make a choice of whether to give up or live.
She told BBC Arts Online: ‘It was literally: “I can do this, I’m going to get through this.” Music is the opposite of despair. It was going to be worth the fight.’
Ms Burton-Hill also revealed how she has begun to relearn how to speak and walk, and is undergoing physical therapy to strengthen the right side of her body, which was affected by the bleed.
She said it was music that had kept her going, describing it as ‘the ultimate motivation’.
As part of her recovery, she has even managed to play the violin with the help of her friend, the violinist Nicola Benedetti, using her left hand on the instrument’s strings while Ms Benedetti bows.
She said: ‘It’s a cliched idea that music is beyond language, but from what I’ve experienced in my own brain, I truly know that now.
‘I really believe music is a part of my recovery because it uses both sides of the brain. It’s as though it trains your brain to be ambidextrous.
‘Sometimes it is the thing that gives me solace. And sometimes it’s the thing that helps me to get up, and fight, and to live.’
As well as her programme on Radio 3, Ms Burton-Hill, who attended Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, is also a presenter of The Culture Show, BBC Young Musician, The Review Show and the BBC Proms.
She has also appeared as an actress in several TV shows including Midsomer Murders.
She has two sons with her diplomat husband, James Roscoe.