Robert Webb was left unable to walk after emergency surgery for a congenital heart defect.
Dianne Buswell and Robert Webb
The 'Peep Show' star has revealed he had to put off signing up for 'Strictly Come Dancing' - which he is currently competing on with professional partner Dianne Buswell - because of the "birth defect", which causes the heart to work overtime to stay alive.
According to The Sun newspaper, he said: “When I first came out of hospital I could not walk to the end of the street without help. I couldn’t even lift a kettle for four weeks.
“So gradually you build up again until you are doing longer and longer walks. Then seven months later the walks turn into runs — and then you become a dancer.
“This was not the first time they asked, and I knew there would be a collision between me and 'Strictly' very likely to happen in the future.
“But it goes back to the heart surgery — now I think I have got something to offer this show.”
The 49-year-old star had assumed it was his boozy lifestyle that led to the heart condition before seeing the cardiologist.
Robert said: “I just thought: ‘This is my lifestyle and this is what it feels like to be 47.’
“But it’s a birth defect — one of the valves in my heart had prolapsed instead of opening and shutting nicely. It had almost doubled in size, it was this really weird shape and it was doing all this just to keep the show on the road.
“My heart thought that I was running up a hill when I was asleep, and I had not noticed. I thought: ‘Well, I am tired, as I treat my body like a skip.’
“I saw a cardiologist and they said I had ‘severe regurgitation’ — that the blood that should have been pushed around my body was flowing backwards into a different chamber, causing all sorts of trouble.”
The comedian plans to show off his surgery scar if he makes it to Halloween week, and he already has an outfit in mind.
He said recently: "It will be the two-year anniversary of my heart surgery on Halloween, I had the operation on November 1 and I think Halloween week is very close to it. So that would be the show to wear a costume and get my scar covered in glitter. That’s my big idea.”
'Strictly Come Dancing' continues on BBC One from 6.45pm on Saturday (09.10.21).
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