Chris Evans: 'I nearly pegged it over Christmas'

DJ and TV personality Chris Evans reveals he was laid so low with pneumonia over Christmas he thought he was going to die

Chris Evans has revealed that he was terrified he was going to die over Christmas when he was struck down by pneumonia.

The BBC DJ talked about his health scare on his Radio 2 programme yesterday, telling listeners that his temperature spiked at 106degF while he was on holiday in Barbados over the festive period.

He said: “It started over Christmas. [I was] felled like a sack of spuds on Christmas Eve and still sort of have it. I peaked at a temperature of 106 on holiday. Nearly pegged it to be honest, nearly pegged it.

Chris Evans

Chris Evans (Yui Mok/PA)

 

“At one point I thought, ‘Do you know what? I’ve got a lovely life and love my family to death, but do you know… I feel so ill at the moment.’ It was nearly curtains for me.”

He also told The Daily Mail: “A very nice Bajan doctor diagnosed me with an upper airways infection; actually three – one for the ears, one for the nose and one for the throat.

“He was quite amazed when the thermometer showed that lava-like temperature reading of 106 degrees.”

Chris Evans

The DJ is feeling much better (Anna Gowthorpe/PA)

 

Chris, 50, said of his treatment: “Immediately he gave me a shot of something rather lively in my gluteus maximus plus three oral medicines that I had to take at various intervals in the day, whilst avoiding grapefruit. Go figure.

“In addition to that little trio was a duo of nose spray and ear drops. I completed all the prescribed medication in full. There was a lot of it going around the whole island apparently as well as back here in Blighty.

“The most important thing I learnt was that achy-breaky feeling that makes you feel so vulnerable and sensitive, is in fact the result of lying down for too long and not drinking enough water – it seems we are almost always much more dehydrated than we realise.”

He added: “Since arriving back in sunny Berkshire I am still a bit croaky and a bit groggy, but so much better than I was.”

 

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