Jason Byrne has admitted that he was shocked to hear that he required stents as a result of a previously undiagnosed heart condition - despite leading a very healthy lifestyle.
The Dublin comedian was a guest on Friday night's Late Late Show, and while he was full of jokes and smart remarks about Covid, getting vaccines as a child, and recalling how he got "slagged off in school for having red hair and glasses", he got serious when host Ryan Tubridy brought up the subject of of his recent health scare.
Recalling the revelation that he had a serious heart condition, Jason told Ryan: "I was always really fit. Ate really well, did all that stuff, no problem at all. So, I went for a run. I wasn’t feeling great.
"So, I went for a run in Portmarnock and I felt a pain just on this [left] side of my chest. And if anybody listening in, if you get any pains at all in that area, just go straight to your doctor. Even if it’s wind, it doesn’t matter. Doctors don’t care. If it’s a pain there, go get it checked.
"So I went to my doctor, my heart doctor, and he’s Doctor Rory Hanlon in Blackrock - he’s brilliant. They did a cholesterol test. They do all the ultrasound on you. But the only way they’ll spot it is with an MRI scan or an angiogram, where they inject a dye into you.
"So they injected it into me and they spotted I had three blocked arteries. Then I started to get really upset, because I’m really fit, I don’t smoke, I barely drink and my diet’s really good.
"And they went, Yeah, it’s hereditary. You got it from your mam and dad. You can get it from your grandparents as well. So it doesn’t matter how fit you feel. It can still get you."
Ryan then wondered what age Jason was when the diagnosis was made. "I’m 50 in February.," he said. "And this was only in October. So when it happened I was 49."
"Were you shocked?" Ryan then asked. "Yes, I was," Jason admitted. "The doctor said, look it’s not your fault. It’s fine. There’s nothing you’re doing wrong, it’s just the cholesterol. I make more cholesterol than other people. So I have to take a tablet forever.
"I said to him [Dr Hanlon]: I should’ve just stayed on burgers and started smoking, and he goes, No, no, no. The very fact that you ran and were healthy at all, actually kept your cholesterol down from the high it should’ve been."
"It could’ve been a very different ending," said Ryan. "Exactly," Jason replied, before Ryan then asked how old his father was when he recently died, of a stroke.
"81. My dad, he was gas," he recalled. "He was very funny. He was very laidback. His secret of life was sitting in the shed. Like, he had stents, he had a pacemaker. But he used to say, if you worry, you die. And if you don’t worry, you die anyway.
"So, why worry?"
The Late Late Show, Fridays on RTÉ One
