FIGHTING FIT
Richard Bacon makes red carpet return after cheating death as he joins stroke survivor Chico at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins health awards
Richard and Chico know the value of the NHS all too well
RICHARD Bacon has made his red carpet return months after cheating death following a mystery respiratory virus.
The TV presenter attended The Sun's Who Cares Wins health awards alongside X Factor alumni Chico Slimani - who was recently dubbed "a walking miracle" after surviving a stroke.
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Richard, 42, presented the Christina Newbury Memorial Award to University Hospitals of Leicester at the ceremony.
Teams from two Leicester hospitals saved the life of newborn baby Vanellope Wilkins when she was born with her heart on the outside of her body in November.
She was the first baby in the UK to survive being born with the condition.
Richard recently praised the NHS after they saved his life earlier this year.
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The star spent nine days in a medically induced coma after he fell ill on a flight from Los Angeles to London.
The former Blue Peter host was originally thought to have contracted pneumonia - but this was a misdiagnosis.
It is unknown what cause the mystery illness, with Richard previously saying: "I got on a plane at the wrong time and the pressurised cabin caused this infection in both my lungs to explode everywhere.
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"When I got off the plane I couldn't breathe properly... I left it 18 hours to go to hospital and that's when it all kicked off.
"They went from telling me I needed to be in an induced to coma to being in a coma within four minutes.
"When I went back there several weeks after it first happened they said 'it wasn't that you might die, we expected you to die.'
"I was the most ill person in Lewisham Hospital."
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Richard Bacon reveals last words his wife said to him before falling into a coma
Singer Chico also attended the Who Cares Wins awards with his wife, Daniyela Rakic, earlier this evening.
Just last month, the 47-year-old fitness fanatic suffered a stroke when driving home to North London from Bognor Regis.
Speaking about the moment he fell ill, Chico previously told us: "My eyes were going in the back of my head literally — I was in a bad way. I was far from OK.
"There was no sense of Chico. I was having a near-death experience."
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Not only did Chico survive the 2cm blood clot on his brain that should have killed him ";instantly," but he is recovering so well specialists have dubbed him "a walking, talking miracle".
He said at the time: "The doctor said ten per cent of people who have a stroke like this would make a full recovery but that normally takes them two, three, four months.
"Then he said about 15 per cent recover but with an impairment like a disability of some sort, like a dead arm or a dead face."
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Tonight marks The Sun's second annual Who Cares Wins health awards - taking place in the year of the NHS’s 70th birthday.
It is a chance for Sun readers to pay tribute to their health heroes – the doctors, nurses, midwives, volunteers and other medical staff who have saved their lives or cared for their loved ones.
As well as Richard and Chico, celebrities such as Vicky Pattison, Lorraine Kelly, and Rod Stewart hit the red carpet at this evening's ceremony.
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