Soap star Chris Fountain has shared a health update with fans after suffering a stroke last year, admitting he’s worried he’ll have ‘another’.
Watch Fountain talk about his 'terrifying' 2022 stroke below:
Fountain, 35, is known for playing Hollyoaks heartthrob Justin Burton before swapping Cheshire for Corrie’s cobbles in 2010, when he took on the role of Tommy Duckworth.
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His last role came in 2018 series Girlfriends, created by Kay Mellor, but has not featured in anything since.
More recently, however, he has been battling concerning health issues after suffering a mini-stroke.
Fountain woke up one morning last August and immediately knew something was wrong, calling 111.
Speaking to The Mirror the following October about the ordeal, he said: “I felt stupid because I knew exactly what I wanted to say to the doctors, but I couldn’t get the words out, I was speaking like a toddler, I was really embarrassed.”
After being sent an ambulance and admitted to hospital, Fountain was told he’d suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) - known as a mini-stroke - when a blood clot lodges in the brain.
One year on, Fountain is celebrating just how far he has come since that fateful day last summer.
Posting a photo of him from 2022 in a hospital bed, he wrote: “1 year ago today. Life can change in an instant, I've had to make a lot of changes but things have gotten so much better.
“Be as positive as you can be, live life to the full and do not give up, no matter how hard things get.”
He also shared a short video reflecting on his progress, saying while he fears he may suffer another stroke at some point, he is ‘proud’ of his recovery – having even run a marathon.
“It's kind of been a weird thing to wrap my head around,” Fountain said.
“Part of me is worrying thinking 'Am I going to have another one today?'
“But then part of me is also super proud of how I've recovered. My speech is pretty much back to normal, I've run a marathon, I'm fit again.”
Thanking fans for their support, he added: “This time last year, I was staying in a hospital bed wondering what the hell is happening and here I am now feeling great.”
When Fountain originally broke the news to fans about his stroke on Instagram, he said he was in 'complete shock' when doctors confirmed what had happened.
"It was a terrifying experience, but could have been a lot worse," he said in the caption of his video.
"The blood clot passed through and damaged part of the left side of my brain where speech and memory is controlled.
"As an actor, spending most of my life reading and remembering things it seems strange to feel lucky that this was where I had problems.
"If the clot had been in another part of my brain, I could have suffered much more serious implications."
Fountain said he'd even thought about going to the gym when he woke up to see if his bizarre symptoms 'just went away'.
"This has given me real perspective on what things matter to me in life and despite being a very tough time, I’m trying to take the positives from it," he told fans.
"I’ve realised that life is fragile and that cherishing every single moment of it should be none negotiable. So that’s what I intend to do from this moment on."
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Coronation Street
Jess Hardiman