M1

All of us at The Milkmaid were saddened to hear the news of Les Barkers heart attack and wish him the speediest of recoveries.

Les Barker - The Heart Attack

A statement from Les Barker. --From teatime on the 5th of Jan 2008 until now.

“It happened about teatime on 5th January and I assumed it was heartburn following a particularly sticky shepherd’s pie in a college canteen at lunchtime. I spent the evening taking part in the local Mari Llwyd tour (an ancient ritual involving going from pub to pub with a horse's skull on a stick) with some of my fellow organiser's of Tegeingl, next August’s new folk festival in Mold. I didn't feel very well, but I was a lot better off than the horse.

Next morning, the discomfort still hadn't gone, so I went to a doctor, who sent me to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where they pronounced it to be a heart attack, and I was promptly thrombolised. They dissolved a clot in my heart, and from then onwards I felt fine. For the last week I've been having tablets and injections to bring down the pulse rate and blood pressure, while sitting by my bed attempting a very long poem in Welsh using each of the twenty four classical metres. I just wanted to know if I can do it. Yesterday - 11th Jan - I was released into the community with a large supply of pills; I am experimenting with deep fried aspirin.

I have to have an angiogram later this month, which may or may not lead to some further treatment. January's gigs have been cancelled; February’s are still on. In March I was to have gone to Australia for a month, but it seems sensible to put that back a year in case the further treatment's necessary. In the meantime I'll sit and look out of the window at the Clwydian Hills and try to finish the poem.

The staff at Wrexham Maelor Hospital were excellent. If I have to be ill again, I'll try to do it in the same place”.

Issued on behalf of Les Barker (www.mrsackroyd. com) & Guide Cats for the Blind.