Brian May says he's 'so grateful to be alive' after heart attack
Queen legend Brian May has said he's "grateful to be alive" after suffering a heart attack.
Speaking to Adil and Charlotte on the show this morning, the lead guitarist said: "It was pretty bad and the complications that came after were pretty bad. It’s been a big mountain to climb to get up to strength again. But it’s become my new religion really; I just exercise, I do my cardio rehab every day and I’m getting strong. I’m very grateful. I had a wonderful surgeon. I’m so grateful to be alive. A few years ago that couldn’t have happened. I have three stents in me, which are working just fine. I feel good."
Of having a big reaction to the medication Brian said: “It was shocking. That’s the point where I nearly lost my life – not the heart attack strangely enough. If anybody wants to talk about it, get in touch with me. You have to be so careful with the medication that they give you. It’s great for the stents, it’s great for the heart, it’s not very good for the rest of your body and you can really go down. It’s a tightrope you walk."
"The worst thing that happened was a stomach haemorrhage and I lost an awful lot of blood. I was wiped out, couldn’t get across the floor. I had a bad time all round. A catalogue of disasters, sciatica as well. I’m not quite sure how I got that. The pain from that was so excruciating I couldn’t really go through with the operation at first for the stents," he added.
On the subject of his health, Brian explained why he thought he might have had coronavirus: "It’s possible. My heart guy says he doesn’t rule it out. It’s such a strange virus and still so much unknown. The virus does thicken the blood and a lot of people do get a heart attack or a stroke after they’ve had coronavirus. We’re learning about long Covid now aren’t we? I’m hoping I don’t have that. It’s only a theory. I didn’t tick any of the boxes to get the heart attack, I’m not a drinker, I wasn’t smoking, I don’t eat fatty foods, I don’t have a family history. Also, I exercise every day on tour. I was up every day on the bike. It doesn’t really make sense. But I’m happy."
During his appearance on the show, Brian also spoke about his collaboration with the rock musical theatre band Woman for a cover of the 1962 track I'm A Woman in support of cancer charities.
Joined virtually on GMB by Mazz Murray he explained: "It’s all about commemorating a great friend of Mazz, Rebekah Gibbs, who we lost to breast cancer.”
Mazz explained: “She’s the reason it began. We were all friends with her, we’d all worked with her. She lost her battle. I promised her that we would do something to raise awareness and that’s what we’ve done.
“She made a lot of changes. She was terrific. She met with [former Health Secretary] Alan Johnson and she got a rule change - women have to be screened if they have any worries about their boobs within two weeks. She did a lot of good and we’re trying to continue it.”