Martin Roberts has shared an emotional health update as he revealed he has refused to slow down despite being warned by his doctors.
The Homes Under the Hammer presenter, 61, previously shared how he was told he had ‘a few hours to live’ after finding out he was suffering from pericardial effusion and was rushed into surgery that saved his life.
Pericardial effusion is a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline he revealed that he still gets twinges in his chest and it causes him to panic.
He explained that he doesn’t ‘know how long he has left’ and is trying to do as much good in the world as possible.
Martin told MailOnline: ‘The physical side of things took a lot longer than we thought to get around.’
Martin Roberts has shared an emotional health update as he revealed he has refused to slow down despite being warned by his doctors
He continued: ‘And I still get twinges and every single time I get a twinge in my chest, I panic. As anyone who has had any kind of problems with their heart would attest to it.
‘It sends you into a flurry of worry because they only sort of dribble out these stories afterwards.
‘It was like I went to see the the consultant who did the emergency operation, and I said to him, ”so how long would I have survived”?
‘He said, ”well, you probably wouldn’t have made it through the night. So it was just as well I was on duty”.
‘I said ”what?” he said, ”you probably had maybe two or three hours to live”.
‘That was two to three hours from dying and not being here and not seeing the kids anymore and not fulfilling all my ambitions and doing all the things I want to do.’
”Yeah, pretty much”, so and that’s sort of the psychological side of that. Takes a lot longer to get over than the physical side.
‘I was told I need to slow down and take things easy and all that kind of stuff, and I’ve gone a completely other way.
The Homes Under the Hammer presenter, 61, previously shared how he was told he had ‘a few hours to live’ after finding out he was suffering from pericardial effusion
‘And which is why I’ve got this project in Wales where I’m renovating a pub, for the community, and we’re using local kids to do the work and bringing kids who are disengaged and disadvantaged, giving them a chance to get construction skills.
‘Just doing lots of good.
‘I don’t know how much time I’ve got left, so I just want to do as much as I possibly can to help.
‘It’s not really about money. It’s about just making a difference, because that’s what you’ll be remembered for.’
The presenter underwent the life-saving operation in 2022 after mistaking chest pains for long Covid.
In a bid to help improve his health, Martin signed up for the E4 series The Big Celebrity Detox, which sees stars trying therapies including drinking their own urine.
In the debut episode, Martin admitted to feeling ‘rocked to his core’ by his health scare.
Introducing himself on the gruelling show in 2023, which came with a warning for viewers not to try the tasks at home, Martin reflected on his ‘frighteningly horrible year’.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline he revealed that he still gets twinges in his chest and it causes him to panic (pictured in 2022)
He said: ‘This year has been a frighteningly horrible year for me. A few months ago, I had a near-death experience and that’s rocked me to my core.
‘I actually want this to make a difference, do I think it will happen? The jury’s out.’
Throughout the first episode, Martin took part in an array of extreme tasks, including drinking his own urine and digesting seeds which cause vomiting.
But, Martin was unconvinced by the effects of the challenges and made his feelings known to spiritual expert Sah D’Simone.
When being told the first task would include drinking his own urine, Martin remained sceptical.
He said: ‘How can something your body gets rid of as a waste product be good for you?’
Despite his worries, Martin did take part in the challenge alongside his co-stars, including Kerry Katona, Megan Barton-Hanson and Princess Olga Romanoff.
Martin previously detailed his terrifying hospital ordeal on This Morning, telling the now-disgraced Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes: ‘I’d been feeling a bit poorly, under the weather for a couple of weeks.
‘I’ve had a few chest infections over the last few years and I’ve had asthma since childhood, so I’m used to quite a tight chest.
‘As it approached the Easter bank holiday weekend, it was starting to get really bad where I could hardly walk without struggling for breath.’
He added: ‘The confusing thing about this, it’s a bit of a red herring, is that it gets you in the breathing side of things, so you don’t think it’s something to do with your heart.
‘You think, ”It must be something to do with my chest.” Then it’s the dangerous thing of playing Google doctor.
‘It looked like it could have been the symptoms for long Covid – real lethargy, a tightness in the chest, pain in the chest, difficulty breathing, so you pause it and pause it and by the time it got to just after the bank holiday weekend, I was starting to be delirious, putting letters the wrong way round, I said to Kirsty, ”We’ve got to go to hospital.”’
His wife Kirsty added: ‘Really worrying. We’re thankful we got to to A&E when we did.’
Symptoms of pericardial effusion can include shortness of breath, chest pains, discomfort when breathing, feeling light-headed or swelling in the abdomen or legs.
While the condition can be treated with medication, in severe cases doctors may perform surgery to drain the excess fluid.
Martin explained that he required surgery because the fluid build-up had placed so much strain on his heart, causing organ failure.
He told Phillip and Rochelle: ‘There’s a sack around your heart and it was filling with fluid, it’s called a pericardial effusion and that in turn is something called a tapenade, which basically means this sack is squeezing the heart it sits around, so the heart isn’t able to expand, and therefore isn’t able to pump, so it means all of your organs start failing.
‘By the time they got to me, my kidneys were at 30 per cent, my liver was at 30 per cent, my lungs weren’t getting the oxygen and at any point, I could have had a heart attack…. The heart would have been strangled by itself.’
He added, ‘We’re talking minutes stroke hours of life left here.’
Asked what went through his mind, Martin said: ‘You just put your life in the hands of professionals. I’m lying there in the specialist cardiac drain unit – there’s a special operating theatre and there’s a local anaesthetic.
‘I’m watching as they stick a tube into the side of your heart and then with a big syringe, he starts pulling this dark red/black liquid, which is almost, I call death liquid, pulls it out and squirts it into a plastic beaker, pulls another one and squirts it in and I was just watching…’
Phillip asked Kirsty whether her husband’s ordeal had sparked a reset for them, and she replied: ‘Totally. We’ve said this, haven’t we? I did send a card to Martin when he came out of hospital and I said, ”We do have to take this as a bit of a watershed moment.”’
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