Nick Hewer: ‘I was an inch away from a stroke’
He might be 74 – but Countdown host Nick Hewer is showing few signs of slowing down any time soon.
Despite being a late starter to TV (his decade on the hit BBC show The Apprentice began when he was nearing 60, which makes him quite the anomaly), he says his broadcasting career has made life interesting and kept him energised.
His latest project is his new memoir – My Alphabet – in which he charts alphabetically (but not chronologically) his life and times, from A for The Apprentice to Z for Z-List, the category of celebrity he thinks he might be in.
2nd excerpt of my book, dealing with my life on C4 Countdown, in Mail today. The whole unabridged, unexpurgated 95000 word version published next week. Includes some harrowing tales of family budgies coming to sticky end. pic.twitter.com/TeXcSRIvvg
— Nick Hewer (@Nick_Hewer) August 27, 2018
In the book – written with Hewer’s trademark affable wit – he also explains his various ailments and weaknesses from over the years, from the migraines brought on through too much smoking (he quit years ago) and coffee, to needing a colonoscopy – and having high blood pressure and being an inch away from a stroke.
Stroke scare
“I was in Rwanda working for the charity Hope and Homes for Children. It was a punishing programme and it was hot and humid and I didn’t feel very well,” Hewer recalls.
“At the hotel, they had a computer and I couldn’t focus on it. I flew back to the UK and was only there a day before flying off to Indonesia and I needed a yellow fever shot.
Nick Hewer was told he narrowly averted a stroke
“I went to my doctor and told him I wasn’t feeling very well. He took my blood pressure and it was sky high (160 over 116). That was the first intimation I’d had that all was not well. Then I told him about my fuzzy vision. He sent me off to get my eyes checked at Moorfields [Eye Hospital] in London, to discover that I was literally about an inch away from a stroke. I had an oedema, following a bleed behind the retina.
“Instead of a blood vessel bursting in the brain, it had popped behind the retina. That was a big warning. Since then, I’ve been on hypertension tablets and I’m absolutely rock steady. I think I’ll be on them forever, but that’s OK, we’re all on pills at my age.”
Everything ‘creaks and groans’ now!
He’s done mammoth road trips through Russia, Mongolia and Sierra Leone, partly because he loves adventure and cars, and to help raise money for charity. Hewer is a patron of Pancreatic Cancer Action and Hope and Homes for Children.
Hewer is a patron of Hope and Homes for Children
And although he reflects that age might be catching up with him, he still has a pretty packed diary. “I may have turned a corner in terms of age,” he muses. “I’m beginning to worry about age. At 70, something goes clunk and you suddenly realise you’re not as agile as you were. Mortality certainly is on one’s mind and one is more concentrating on how to deal with it when the time comes.”
He didn’t hit a low point when he turned 70 though, but was aware that he was “creaking and groaning”, he confesses with a laugh.
Friendly concern
Hewer knows he should do more exercise but admits that he doesn’t. “I’ve got two bicycles and I keep looking at them. I’ve never ridden either of them,” he teases.
Nick Hewer (right) during his Apprentice days with Lord Sugar and Karren Brady
A while ago, his buddy Lord Sugar informed him he was worried about his health, while they were having lunch at the House of Lords.
“He said, ‘You know you’ve got a serious heart condition, don’t you?’” Hewer recalls. “I said, ‘No’. He said, ‘Oh yes, I’ve noticed! You’ve gone up those stairs and you’re out of breath’, at which point he pulled his phone out and texted his cardiologist, saying, ‘My friend Nick Hewer has a serious heart condition and you need to see him urgently’.
“Well, before I knew what had happened, the cardiologist had responded, and before I knew what was going on, I was copied in to the appointment!’”
“They put me through all the hoops before telling me, ‘You’re in very good condition, with a little bit of a leak but we’ve all got a bit of a leak’. I got back on the train and Alan Sugar called me, saying, ‘Well, how did it go?’ I said, ‘I’m in perfect condition’. He said, ‘Oh’ – and there was an air of disappointment in his voice!”
With M’Lud Sugar straightening out the lopsided Venice skyline. @Lord_Sugar pic.twitter.com/rI1WUZSYxY
— Nick Hewer (@Nick_Hewer) July 10, 2018
Lord Sugar has never persuaded Hewer to accompany him on his gruelling cycle rides, the TV personality reveals.
“Have you seen him all geared up in his Lycra ready to go for 30 miles – and I’m about to go for breakfast? He’ll go 60 miles before lunch. He’s a very fit guy.”
Still working ‘too hard’
These days, Hewer and his partner Catherine divide their time between their home in Northamptonshire and his rural bolthole in south-west France. He has two children and five grandchildren, but says of his role as a grandpa: “I’m not attentive enough. I’m still working too hard.”
He’s about to sign a two-year contract for Countdown, but turns a lot down these days – including an approach from Strictly Come Dancing.
“It’s a fantastic show but I’d have a heart attack within the first two minutes,” Hewer insists. “The energy and athleticism is beyond description. It’s not my sort of thing. Nobody’s stitching me into a red satin shirt, I can tell you.”
My Alphabet: A Life From A To Z by Nick Hewer is published by Simon & Schuster on September 6, priced £20.
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