From the harrowing highway nightmare where he nearly lost a leg to the open skies where he survived a terrifying plane crash, Nigel Farage has dodged the grim reaper more times than a cat with nine lives.
In addition to his wild near-misses – the Brexit leader, 59, also had a nasty bout with cancer at just 21. Now, as he swaps debating for the Australian wilderness on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, this opinionated politician is braving poisonous snakes and Bushtucker trials in a daring quest for the Jungle Crown.
Let’s take a look at Nigel’s nail-biting brushes with death before he step foot in the deadly Australian Wilderness
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Car Accident
(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
In 1985, Farage was involved in a car accident which nearly cost him his leg.
The accident occurred when he was hit by a car while walking on the roadside. This incident resulted in severe injuries, including a crushed left leg, which doctors initially considered amputating. Farage described the moment of the accident in his memoir, stating: “I grasped the lamp’s stalk and swung myself into the street. I remember nothing more.”
(Image: ITV / Shiver)
He was thrown into the air and landed on his head, which hit the curb. However, after a lengthy recovery process, Farage was able to keep his leg, although he was left with permanent damage and a noticeable limp after spending two months in the hospital and a year in a cast.
However, Nigel met his first wide Gráinne Hayes, an Irish nurse during the incident. This unexpected encounter occurred when she attended to him in the hospital following the accident.
Reflecting on this period, Farage recounted: “I married the nurse who treated me. A cliché, I know, but not only did I get my life back, I got a wife and two fantastic sons.” The pair later divorced.
Plane Crash
(Image: Getty Images)
In an election day spectacle that could’ve been ripped straight from a blockbuster script, Nigel Farage stared death in the face when his light aircraft turned rogue as it was dragging a defiant UKIP banner across the sky. It became ensnared around the tail, spelling disaster and causing the plane to crash. Farage suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs and a punctured lung.
(Image: PA)
The crash, while severe, did not result in any long-term debilitating injuries, and Farage was able to resume his political activities relatively quickly. The realty star recalled the incident on a recent episode of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Saying: “I don’t recall being unconscious, but I do recall the explosion, the plane flipping over, being stuck in there, everything broken… every rib front and back, split sternum, punctured lung… it was bad,” Farage said of his injuries.
Testicular Cancer
(Image: PA)
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Nigel Farage claimed the NHS almost killed him when he was misdiagnosed with an infection which actually turned out to be testicular cancer nearly 40 years ago.
He claims a cancerous tumour was missed by a series of NHS doctors when he was 21, who first concluded he had a twisted testicle. Farage said this process of misdiagnosis continued when an “Indian doctor” incorrectly told him the source of his pain was actually an infection and prescribed antibiotics, a diagnosis his GP also agreed with six weeks later.
(Image: Getty Images)
“’Keep taking the antibiotics,’ he preached, and that was that.” Nigel claims he was eventually forced to visit a private GP when the pain became so severe he had difficulty walking and was left with a testicle “as large as a lemon and rock hard”.
It was this doctor, he says, that referred him for scan and discovered the cancer. Farage later underwent an operation to have the testicle removed, a process he joked was not something he was all too pleased about.
“It doesn’t matter how much people tell you that you have a surplus with two, I certainly didn’t want one of them removed.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
