Judy Finnigan says she ‘nearly died’ after taking over-the-counter ibuprofen every day for a month.
The television presenter was rushed to hospital last autumn for two life-saving blood transfusions after the painkillers made her cough blood.
Judy, 70, recalls ‘gulping the blue capsules like sweeties’ every day for a month which made her develop four large stomach ulcers.
‘I nearly died,’ Judy wrote in the Daily Express. ‘It was nothing to do with aspirin, which I don’t take. The culprit was good old over-the-counter ibuprofen, the seemingly harmless stuff you take for a bad back, or (in my case) a painful knee.
She continued: ‘One night I woke up and vomited copious amounts of blood. Totally out of the blue. Never experienced anything like it before and hope to God I never will again.’
Judy explains how an ulcer had ruptured directly above a main artery and says she only survived thanks to the swift ambulance crew and ‘superb emergency treatment’ at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
Best known as one half of TV presenting duo Richard & Judy, the mum-of-four announced her decision to retire from TV after 43 years last May.
Her husband Richard, 62, has continued to present, with regular stints on Good Morning Britain filling in for Piers Morgan.
Judy was last seen on TV in August, when she and Richard took part in a programme to celebrate 30 years of This Morning, the show on which they starred between 1988 and 2001.
Before that, her last TV appearance was in 2015, following a heavily criticised appearance on Loose Women in 2014 in which she appeared to defend the then-convicted rapist Ched Evans.
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