Strictly Come Dancing star Susannah Constantine has revealed that she is “lucky to be alive” following a medical emergency.
The 61-year-old is best known for her partnership with Trinny Woodall and spent nearly a decade on our screens after starring in the hit TV show, What Not To Wear for the BBC.
She also appeared on Strictly back in 2018 where she was partnered up with Anton Du Beke.
Susannah revealed that a neurosurgeon informed her she needed immediate surgery – or risk paralysis or a haemorrhage.
She said: “They said ‘It’s Hobson’s Choice, if you don’t have the operation, you’ve got a one in three chance of having a brain haemorrhage, being paralysed or having a stroke.”
“‘If you do have surgery, you’ve got a one in 10 chance of these same things happening during the operation.”
The mother-of-three revealed that her condition was a venous fistula – which is an abnormal connection between an artery and a vein.
She told OK!: “I had a health scare and a pretty major operation.
“It was a very rare thing where I had a leak – the arteries were bleeding into the capillaries and trapping the spinal cord, and affecting my brain.”
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She first gave the indication that she wasn’t well when she posted a picture to her social media, showing her attached to a drip.
At the time, she wrote: “Withered arm turned out to be symptom of something a bit more serious.”
“All sorted now thanks to our ailing but still magnificent NHS where we are lucky enough to have some of the most gifted doctors (and in this case neurosurgeons) in the world. @brainandspine.”
“Forever grateful.”
