Susannah Constantine thinks about mortality ‘most mornings’ after health scare

Former What Not To Wear host Susannah Constantine has said she thinks about her mortality “most mornings” as she reflected on overcoming a “life-threatening” neurological disorder.

The London-born 61-year-old said that one of the benefits of ageing is being able to take health issues “on board” and be “less fearful” about them.

Discussing her health on the ITV1 panel show Loose Women, she said: “I feel fine.

“I mean, I did have this sort of weird neurological disorder and it was life-threatening, but, well at my age anyway, you just take these things on board.

“I think that is one of the huge benefits of getting older.

“You’re less fearful in some ways and although I do think about my mortality most mornings when I wake up, I’m cool about it.

“I’m in a really happy place. Life is so simple and essentially, I’m primarily a wife and a mother, a housewife who happens to work and that’s exactly how I like it.”

Last year, Constantine hinted at her health issues when she shared a video of herself in a hospital bed to Instagram and praised the “gifted doctors and angel nurses” who had looked after her.

Ok! magazine reported that she had been taken to hospital for emergency surgery after suffering from pins and needles, tinnitus and a swollen eye.

She told the publication: “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’.”

She told The Sun: “I had this thing called an arterial fistula and I still don’t understand what it was, I was very lucky not to have a stroke or be paralysed.

“So I have a total clean bill of health now, thanks to the NHS and surgeons, they set me on the path to health.”

According to the Guy’s And St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust website an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is a connection that is made by joining a vein onto an artery to cause more blood to flow through the vein.

Constantine also discussed her hearing loss on the ITV1 programme, and said: “I went to Boots Hearingcare and I got myself tested and I’m now working with them to try and take the stigma away.”

The TV star previously opened up about her hearing loss on breakfast show Lorraine and said she was “so proud” of her hearing aids, describing them as “rock’n’roll”.