More on Andy "The Viking" Fordham
Note: This article below is reprinted from the Telegraph.co.UK, By Richard Alleyne, 07/07/2008
"I can't blame anybody but myself" said Andy Fordham who ballooned to 30-stone after turning to drink to calm his nerves before matches. (Note: One stone is approximately 14 pounds...)
The star of ITV's Celebrity Fit Club has been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver brought on by drinking sessions in which he would consume upwards of 60 bottles of beer a day.
The 46-year-old publican, who ballooned to 30-stone, first became aware that he was ill after collapsing in January last year during a competition.
Since then he has become teetotal and slimmed to 17 stone.
But Fordham has now been told he needs a new liver. The player, nicknamed The Viking, said: "I can't blame anybody but myself. I've had enough warnings from doctors down the years.
to Stay Alive After Years of Heavy Drinking.
"You think it's one of those things that won't happen to you, but it has." Fordham turned to drink to calm his nerves before matches and boozed away from darts at the pub he ran in Dartford, Kent.
He said: "Each night I'd probably have around 20 bottles, then start on the vodka or brandy or both. "The most I ever drank in one day was 60 bottles – and that was to celebrate my wedding anniversary in 2003." His wife Jenny, 45, persuaded him to take up an invitation to star on Celebrity Fit Club.
He lost three stone – but put it back on after the series ended. Then in January last year he collapsed at the world championships.
Fordham, who won the title in 2004, said: "Most people thought it was to do with my heart. But after a few days of tests the doctors told me my liver was in a bad way." "Once, touch wood, I have the operation I can start knuckling down a bit."
He now owns a pub in Thames-mead, South East London, and is preparing to write his life story while he waits for a date for the operation.
The Story Below Is Reprinted from MailOnline by Barney Calman, 01/15/2008
Professional darts players are not generally known for their slim physiques. But even in their heavyweight world, Andy Fordham was a giant among men.
At 6ft tall and a huge 31st, it wasn't hard to see how the bearded 2004 British Darts Organisation World Champion earned his nickname, The Viking.
So at a recent competition, onlookers were shocked by his dramatic weight loss.
A stroke forced darts champ Andy Fordham to quit drinking, change his diet and lose 10 stone. The 45-year-old has shed more than 10st since last January, after collapsing at the World Championships in Lakeside, Surrey. He was rushed to hospital where he had 18 litres of fluid drained from his lungs and later suffered a minor stroke.
Andy was diagnosed with cirrhosis - more than 70 per cent of his liver has been destroyed - and was told that unless he stopped drinking, he'd have only a few years to live.
He has now vowed to lose even more weight - and this from someone who, as a boy, was so skinny that he was nicknamed The Whippet.
Andy, who grew up in Charlton, South-East London, was a keen track-and-field athlete and footballer, and even in his mid-20s he weighed only 13st - a healthy weight for his height. But then he took up darts - a sport known for its big drinking culture - and in 1995 became a pub landlord.
"I hardly noticed I was becoming overweight as it happened so slowly. It started as a bit of a pot belly, which I kept saying I'd do something about but never did.
"It's not like I woke up one morning and suddenly weighed 31st," says Andy who, as well as being a darts champion, runs The Cutty Sark pub in Thamesmead with his wife Jenny.
"I never ate a lot, but I ate badly, grabbing convenience foods - takeaways, pizzas, kebabs - because I was always so busy. If I was working behind the bar, I'd snack on peanuts or crisps, and I never exercised. And then there was the drinking.
"Looking back, I realise I was an alcoholic. I couldn't stop myself. I thought I was in control but I wasn't. I would start drinking as soon as I went downstairs to open up the bar, at around 11am.
"On an average day, I'd have up to 25 bottles of lager and half a bottle of spirits - vodka, brandy or whisky. Before darts matches I'd drink to calm my nerves. People assume alcoholics slur and fall all over the place, but I never drank to get drunk.
"No one really noticed how much I was putting away, except for Jenny. Sometimes she would beg me to stop drinking, but I wouldn't listen. I'm incredibly stubborn."
By this time, Andy was dangerously overweight. In November 2004 he was forced to withdraw from a major competition due to 'heat exhaustion'.
Amazingly, subsequent medical tests found his cardiovascular health was remarkably good. However, he was suffering from severely swollen legs and breathing problems, especially at night when he would wake up struggling for air.
In 2005, Andy took part in Celebrity Fit Club. He lost almost 3st but piled it back on again when the cameras stopped rolling.
"At the beginning of the series, they made us run round a football pitch," says Andy. "I got halfway and had to stop because I was gasping for air.
"The Celebrity Fit Club doctors had me on a special low-calorie diet and persuaded me to swop lager for white wine and soda. I was exercising every day, walking at first then jogging. But as soon as I returned home, I went back to my old ways."
Despite his health concerns 2006 he was suffering pains in his stomach and lungs - he refused to seek medical help.
"If I'd gone to the doctor it would have meant I had a problem. I didn't want to admit that to myself.
"I was in complete denial. But I was constantly out of breath - I couldn't walk for more than five minutes without having to sit down. Even putting on clothes was exhausting."
Things came to a head last January as Andy, a non-smoker, was preparing to play his first round match in the World Championships at the Lakeside Country Club.
"I was doing an interview with the BBC that afternoon and during the breaks people kept asking me if I was OK because I was wheezing and sweating. I told them I was fine, just a bit out of breath.
"Then, as I was being led into the competition venue, I started to get pains in my chest and I slumped on a chair, gasping for air. I thought I was having a heart attack."
Andy was rushed to nearby Frimley Park Hospital, where X-rays revealed that a huge build-up of fluid in his chest had crushed one of his lungs. He was placed in the hospital's high dependency unit and for a week his life hung in the balance.
"They tried to drain the fluid by putting a needle in my back, but even their longest needle wouldn't reach because I was too big," he says.
"Eventually, they made a hole in my back and inserted a tube to drain the fluid.
"It was done under a local anaesthetic and was quite uncomfortable, but not painful. For the first time, I was frightened. It had finally hit home: I was seriously ill."
The tube was kept in for around two weeks, over which time 18 litres of fluid were steadily drained from his chest while he stayed in hospital.
"I started to feel better almost immediately. The doctors told me it had happened because I had cirrhosis of the liver, due to my weight and the drinking. I knew I only had myself to blame."
Cirrhosis is a condition in which scar tissue forms inside the liver, stopping its normal functions, and is usually caused by chronic alcohol abuse, obesity or viruses such as hepatitis C and B. Andy was told he'd lost 70 per cent of his liver function.
"The doctors said if I didn't stop drinking I would die," he recalls.
A week later he was discharged, only to be rushed back into hospital later the same day after suffering what the doctors believed to be a minor stroke.
"I was talking to Jenny when my speech started to slur and then the left side of my face went numb," he explains.
"When the ambulance arrived I tried to stand up but couldn't move my left foot."
Andy was rushed to hospital again, but discharged the same day as the stroke was not considered serious.
It is thought that it was the natural result of the sudden physical changes causing some of the fatty build-up in his arteries to break off and temporarily block the blood supply to part of the brain. But he was profoundly shaken by the ordeal.
"I knew if I didn't stop drinking and lose weight I wouldn't be around much longer," says Andy, father to Ray, 21, and Emily, 20.
"I thought of my children and my wife. For their sakes I knew I had to change." "I didn't find it hard to stop drinking as I was in hospital for the first month. I'm still tempted to drink occasionally, but Jenny is always around to make sure I don't slip up."
Since he stopped drinking, the weight has 'literally dropped off', he says. He also uses an exercise bike 'but the doctors have told me not to go too mad to begin with, because it may put a strain on my heart'. He is also trying to avoid junk food and to eat balanced meals.
Things are still touch and go, however - if his liver deteriorates any more, he will need a transplant.
The liver is essential for the body to metabolise food and clean out toxins from the blood. Drinking to excess and being over-weight causes fat to be deposited in the liver cells.
Eventually, the build-up of fat leads to inflammation, causing permanent scar tissue which stops the liver from working properly - cirrhosis.
Common symptoms include jaundice - a yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by the failure of the liver to remove toxic substances from the blood - fluid retention in the legs and the abdomen, easy bruising, spider veins (similar to varicose veins) and enlargement of breasts in men.
Accumulation of fluid in the stomach and the chest, which is what Andy experienced, is a complication of advanced liver disease, explains William Rosenberg, professor of hepatology at University College London.
"Because the scar tissue makes it harder for blood to pump through the liver, water is forced out of the blood vessels and into the surrounding organs where it can accumulate.
"If a person suffering from cirrhosis doesn't dramatically change their lifestyle, they also risk major internal bleeding and liver cancer, and will eventually suffer complete liver failure."
"Quite apart from the fact that obesity puts him at risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, if he wants to avoid serious problems with his liver, Andy must never drink again and must keep his weight down," says Professor Rosenberg.
Andy has accepted this, but admits: "The only problem with playing darts now is that my weight loss has affected my balance. It's been like learning to throw in a new body."
He insists none of this would have been possible without the support of Jenny, his partner of 28 years whom he married in 2000.
"When I look in the mirror now I feel small and fragile. People joke that I'm half the man I used to be, and they're right.
"I don't fit any of my old clothes and feel quite self- conscious at times. Jenny has had to buy me a new wardrobe.
"But she has never given up on me. I owe her everything for standing by me, and that's why there is no way I'm going back."