So close: Mitch with Amy out in London last month
Former taxi driver Mitch Winehouse must have thought that once his daughter Amy had established her music career, he could afford to relax a little.
But with international success came the young singer’s erratic, drug-fuelled dramas, and Mitch ended up trying to protect his 27-year-old daughter from the dark side of the music industry, arranging everything from her financial affairs to the stints in rehab.
Mitch, 60, put so much time and effort into making sure Amy was OK that he ignored his own health issues - and that nearly proved a fatal mistake.
He delayed going to the doctor for investigations despite suffering intermittent and painful bouts of stomach pain, and ended up having emergency surgery to have his gall bladder removed.
He admits that for a long time, he was scared of going to the doctor - even when he was in agony. He says: ‘My father died of cancer at 43 and my mother died from it four years ago.
‘I’ve had an uncle and aunt and a stepfather who died from cancer and my grandparents did as well, so in my subconscious something told me if I went through hospital doors, I wouldn’t be coming out.
‘So I tend to bury my head in the sand over anything to do with my health. I’m scared stiff of doctors and I just wouldn’t allow myself to think the intermittent pain was anything other than indigestion because inevitably it would go away.
‘I suppose I got used to the fact that these agonising pains would just come and go.’
Then, in August, Mitch was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment while on holiday in Spain with his second wife Jane, 47, and friends.
‘The pain was the worst thing I have ever experienced,’ he says. ‘It was so paralysing I could not ignore it.’
One of his friends recognised the symptoms as gallstones. After a few terrible hours in hospital, Mitch’s pain subsided and he was discharged, but he had ignored his condition for too long.
He recalls: ‘The next day we were due to fly back and everything was fine until we were at the airport. Suddenly I felt it all coming on again, and this time taking pills or being sick didn’t help. we phoned our private GP before boarding and he said to go straight to hospital when we landed.’
New lease of life: Since his health scare Mitch has followed his daughter into the musical spotlight
When they touched down, the cab Mitch had hired to take them home rushed him instead to The London Clinic, where he was admitted for tests. Doctors found biliary colic – a gallstone stuck in the cystic duct (the tube that passes from the gall bladder to the gut) – as well as an infection in his gall bladder.
They put him on a drip for antibiotics, nutrients, fluids and painkillers to give his gall bladder a rest.
‘I grew feverish and doctors told me I had left it a bit late and developed septicaemia. Thankfully they had it under control – but you can die from that.’
After ten days, Mitch was allowed home and an operation was booked for September to remove the gall bladder. Because the gallstone was stuck high in the cystic duct, the operation could not be done by keyhole surgery, so Mitch had another stay in hospital of ten days to recuperate from open surgery.
‘In hospital I lost two-and-a-half stone,’ he says. and he has continued to lose weight. ‘At the beginning of the year I was 19 stone and I am now four stone lighter.
‘I can eat normally without my gall bladder, but the memory of the pain is still so intense that I want to stay as healthy as possible.
‘I am now on a low-fat diet and keeping my weight down.’
The gall bladder is a small, pearshaped, pouch-like organ situated below the liver. its main purpose is to store and concentrate bile, a liquid produced by the liver that is used to help with the digestion of fats.
Bile is passed from the liver through a series of channels, known as bile ducts, into the gall bladder.
Over time, bile becomes more concentrated in the gall bladder, increasing its effectiveness at digesting fats. As the gall bladder expands and contracts, crystals that have formed are usually expelled with the bile, but in about ten to 15 per cent of adults they can remain and gradually grow larger into gallstones.
The risk of developing gallstones - which are usually made of cholesterol and are similar in size and appearance to gravel - increases with pregnancy, obesity, quick weight loss, diabetes and taking the pill.
Most people experience no symptoms, but in roughly five per cent of cases a stone becomes stuck in the cystic duct.
As the gall bladder squeezes to dislodge the stone, bile cannot escape and this causes sharp abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes).
If a gallstone does not eventually dislodge or pass into the gut, the neck of the gall bladder can become stretched, inflamed and infected.
The usual way to treat an inflamed gall bladder is to stop the patient eating to give it a rest and then remove it surgically a few days later, after which a patient can continue to eat normally, as bile steadily drips from the liver straight into the digestive tract.
It worked for Mitch and he is making the most of his new lease of life, following his daughter into the musical spotlight by releasing his own album of obscure jazz swing coversoriginally recorded by crooners such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Chet Baker.
The album was Amy’s idea. she suggested it six years ago, but Mitch then shelved the plan while seeing her through the worst of her drink and drug problems. then, of course, he became ill and had to postpone the launch.
‘We’re having the launch soon and it’s going to be Amy this time in the front row applauding me and not the other way round,’ he jokes.
- mitchwinehouse.com; theguttrust.org; corecharity.org.uk