Telly tough man Gary Webster has told how he is being nursed back to health after suffering a major heart attack. The 47-year-old who found fame in EastEnders before becoming George Cole’s sidekick in Minder revealed his scare in an exclusive interview with HELLO!
"My heart was a ticking time bomb and I’d no idea," he tells the magazine.Gary, who is married to former Pet Rescue host Wendy Turner, took four days to see doctors at Kingston hospital after suffering chest pains in September believing it was because he was overeating.When he finally went to A&E doctors found one of the arteries to his heart was 85 per cent blocked. Had it been any worse they explained the attack could have been fatal. "A senior doctor came in and said the test suggested to them that I’d had quite a significant heart attack and they were worried I was going to have another said," says Gary.
He underwent emergency surgery, a procedure called angiogram to help open up his blocked artery, and after a stay in hospital he is now being nursed back to health at home. "Wendy has been brilliant. She is a caring, but strong, person who can deal with a crisis.""Although I’d partied a lot in the early 1990s, I’d also run two marathons one in 2007 and one in 2008 and a half marathon 18 months ago. I don’t smoke, I eat fairly healthily, I don’t drink much these days, my cholesterol isn’t high and I’m not overweight. "For the full interview, pick up HELLO! Magazine, issue 1195, on sale now.
