Wayne Lineker has recalled his terrifying near-fatal health scare which saw his spend seven weeks in hospital after suffering from two severe attacks of pneumonia.
The O Beach Ibiza founder, 63, revealed he began to feel unwell on a flight to the UK from Dubai after visiting his daughter, Tia.
After arriving home, Wayne woke up in the night in ‘agony’ and feared he was having a heart attack.
He managed to crawl over to his phone and call for an ambulance and spent the next four weeks in Basildon & Thurrock University Hospital, with chronic pneumonia.
Pneumonia is a lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection, in which the air sacs fill with pus and may become solid.
Wayne told The Mirror: ‘After three days at home, I had another really big attack – I was in a severe state. The doctor told my son I was in big danger and my blood pressure was ridiculously low. But they said, “We’re just going to tell your dad he’s ok. We’ll get an ambulance”.
Wayne Lineker has recalled his terrifying near-fatal health scare which saw his spend seven weeks in hospital after suffering from two severe attacks of pneumonia
The British entrepreneur, 63, was discharged at the end of December from Basildon & Thurrock University Hospital following his lengthy stay over the festive period
‘There were two times I nearly passed away – it was a real eye opener for me. I became worried about my life. Am I going to make it?… I lost so much weight, I lost 11 kilograms of weight because I was lying in bed for seven weeks.
‘When I came out, I just looked awful. I couldn’t look in the mirror for weeks and that was just really scary. I lost a lot of weight off my face as well, and all across my chest, and I looked very frail.’
Wayne said the health scare was another wake up call, after turning his life around six months earlier.
The British entrepreneur admitted himself into rehab after struggling with alcohol and drugs – and thinks if he had not of done this, he wouldn’t have survived his pneumonia battle.
Wayne began drinking heavily and taking drugs whilst he was in Ibiza to cope with his anxiety.
He would wake up in the morning and head to a bar where he would have a vodka Red Bull and a cheese and tomato toastie.
Wayne said he would often turn off his phone to ignore worried pleas from his family and continue drinking into the night and it became a vicious cycle.
The brother of Gary Lineker revealed it was his children who urged him to seek help after his son Freddie, 21, cried on his chest after witnessing the binges while living with him in Ibiza.
Wayne said the health scare was another wake up call, after turning his life around six months earlier. The British entrepreneur admitted himself into rehab after struggling with alcohol
Now out of hospital, Wayne is taking things slowly and trying to improve his health by going to the gym and taking supplements.
Of if he will return to his Ibiza beach club, Wayne said his focus has changed, to get better, stronger and ‘carry on being sober because I’m enjoying it, and it’s got a lot of benefits’.
