I'm A Celebrity star Craig Charles battling same genetic condition which killed his brother
I'm A Celebrity star Craig Charles has revealed he's was diagnosed with the same genetic condition which killed his brother after he suffered a heart attack.
Craig Charles was diagnosed with the same genetic condition which killed his brother after suffering a terrifying heart scare.
The Red Dwarf star lost his beloved brother Deann when he died suddenly in 2014 aged 52 while the actor was away in Australia filming I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! and Craig has now revealed he is battling the same medical problem which killed his sibling.
During an episode of I'm A Celebrity All Stars, Craig, 61, explained his condition to his campmates, saying: "The arteries from my heart were narrow. It’s the same thing that killed my brother when I was here last time. They told me this is genetic, you need to go get that looked at."
However, Craig didn't take the condition seriously until he was struck down with a "heart attack" while he was home alone.
He said: "And then my wife, Jackie, is in Galway, visiting [her] parents, and I’m at home. I gave her a ring, something like that: 'I don’t feel great, man. My jaws are tingling'.
"Anyway, her sister in law’s a nurse and said to call for an ambulance, so I didn’t, because you don’t call the ambulance on your own.
"And she [Jackie] was coming home in the morning, so she came home the next morning and took one look at me and got on the phone, and the woman said: 'We think he’s having a heart attack, and stay with me'.
"She asked: 'What colour is he?’ And she [Jackie] said: 'He’s brown'. So by now I am having a heart attack and laughing my socks off."
Craig went on to detail the medical procedure he underwent, adding: "They put a wire in, which is attached to a balloon, and then they blow the balloon up, then they stick a stent in, and it goes all the way up there into your heart, so it widens the artery.
"Because apparently I was existing only 35 per cent blood to my heart, and when they put the stents in and it’s on 100 per cent. So they saved me.
"My brother had the same thing, but he passed out, he was working at a school as a teacher."
It comes after Craig admitted he couldn't bear to watch I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! after he was forced to pull out of the show following Dean's death.
He told The Sun newspaper: "The death of my brother, and my unexpected departure as a result, did change my life.
"It made me re-evaluate things and made me ask: ‘If that had happened to me, would I be happy with what I had achieved?’ I came up with the answer and it was ‘no’ ...
"I was really enjoying my time in the Australian jungle and it got sadly cut short. I knew I wanted to have some new adventures after that ... Since I left, there have been years of ‘What ifs?’
"At first, I’m A Celebrity felt bittersweet after I’d left, and in the first few years I couldn’t watch the show. It made me sad and it opened a world of loss.
"Every year it came around, I would feel a sense of loss and a feeling of what might have been – both for my brother and for me.
"He was only 52 and he would have been 63 now, which is no age. But that feeling has decreased over the years, and the last few years I have been able to watch it again without feeling the pain and the grief."
Craig has now returned to the show to appear in the All Stars version which was filmed in South Africa and he admitted the offer came "at the right time".
He added: "When this came round, it was at the right time. I feel strong and confident enough to face it again and have a laugh!"
However, Craig confessed he's less fit than he was the first time around and he still can't stand heights or "creepy crawlies".
