'PRAY FOR HER'
Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Star Paddy Doherty’s heartache at missing sister’s funeral amid Covid battle
HEARTBROKEN Paddy Doherty has revealed he was forced to miss his sister's funeral amid his battle with Covid.
The Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star, 61, has now been discharged from hospital after telling fans he was "hours from death" after testing positive for coronavirus.
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He initially refused hospital treatment, but was later rushed onto a ward suffering with "double pneumonia" - and later released a video from this bed saying he felt "lucky to be alive".
But in new footage, the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant told fans he was tragically unable to attend his beloved sister's funeral due to his illness.
Sounding short of breath, he thanked fans for their prayers before adding: “My lovely sister gets buried tomorrow.
“Please pray for her family, her sons, her lovely daughter and her
beautiful husband.
“And for my brothers and sisters.
“And myself, because I can’t be at my sister's funeral.
“It’s a bad thing, but it is what it is.”
Mr Doherty, who previously lived at a caravan park in Flintshire, north Wales, suffered extreme exhaustion which left him stuck in bed for two days after he first fell ill.
As his condition worsened, his worried wife Roseanne alerted emergency services before he was taken to hospital in Chester.
He was placed on oxygen by doctors, and in previous videos filmed himself gasping for breath.
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His son Simey told fans after Doherty's admission: "Can everybody please keep my father in prayer.
"I was just speaking to him and he has got double pneumonia, and also tested positive for Covid.
"He’s also on oxygen. Keep my father in prayer."
But Doherty has now revealed he's now recuperating at home, saying: "Just got to keep indoors now for 10 days and I'm a new man.
"So I want to thank you all for praying and just being concerned about me.
"But the most important people I've ever seen in my life is them nurses and doctors. They're a great team.
"Can I just say one thing? Listen - you're on about a front line - imagine soldiers, they've got to go up front first before the back crew gets killed, they got to go up.
"And that's what it's like, they're going up. They know exactly what's happening, and they're wearing this [PPE], and they can catch it faster and they're putting their lives...
"I've never seen nothing like them. They are the true warriors of God, true angels."
He has previously urged everyone to be “extra careful” and to “keep your distance".
“Cats have seven lives - I must have 100 lives,” he said.
In an interview from hospital, the star said he was told he could die by paramedics after refusing hospital treatment.
"I was getting worse. I had sweats, pains, exhaustion and headaches. I was in a bit of a mess," he said.
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"The paramedics arrived and said they needed to take me into hospital.
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"I didn't want to go, but they insisted because they were really worried for me.
"They said, 'If you don’t go in you may not wake up tomorrow'."
Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty praises NHS Staff after being released from hospital
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