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Father Malcolm recovering at home |
Emergency op saves plucky priest
Hero of St Michael’s roof vigil escapes death after heart defect diagnosed
HE is the plucky priest best known for camping on his church roof in a bid to rescue it from ruin.
But last month Father Malcolm Hunter had a far riskier battle on his hands when he was diagnosed with a defective heart condition that could have killed him at any moment.
After his morning jog left him breathless and tight-chested for several days in a row, Father Malcolm, who is based at St Michael’s Church in Camden Road, Camden Town, suspected he was suffering from a chest infection and went to see his GP. What he wasn’t prepared for was the news he could have died from a faulty heart valve he had been born with that failed to pump oxygen around his heart properly.
Father Malcolm, a former builder who once ran his own construction company, was rushed to hospital and given open-heart surgery within hours.
Speaking from his recovery bed at home in Potters Bar, he said: “I started feeling ill a couple of weeks before and I knew something wasn’t right, but it only happened when I was running, and I thought it was an infection.”
He added: “The reason I’m alive is because of my level of fitness – I don’t smoke or drink and I exercise five times a week. The doctors told me that’s what kept me alive.”
During his operation, in which his ribs were cut to the sternum and parted open, his heart was stopped and he was put on a life support machine. “I wasn’t alive when this was happening. I was out for the count,” said Father Malcolm, a married father-of-three, with typical stoicism. He added: “I wasn’t scared.
“Whatever was to be was to be, there was nothing I could do. I was just grateful it had been picked up, and for the support and prayers people have given me since.”
He attracted headlines across the world last year and earned a reputation as Camden’s most daring priest for his 10-day vigil living on the roof of his church, day and night, in a mission to raise £100,000 in charity donations.
Work began on the Grade II listed building in January after Father Malcolm succeeded in raising the cash and English Heritage threw in the remaining £350,000 as part of deal struck up by the church and the conservation organisation.
Never one to put his feet up – unless it is to raise money – he plans to spend his two months’ enforced time off to write a book about his life.
Last year the New Journal featured an account of his life, which saw him go from being the boss of his own company to living on the streets before becoming a priest.
His ordination, scheduled for last month, has been postponed until his health improves. |
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