This Country’s Michael Sleggs fought for his life every day in courageous battle against heart defect, he reveals in final interview
THIS Country star Michael Sleggs spent much of his life in and out of hospital before he died of heart failure aged 33 last night.
The actor, who played Michael ‘Slugs’ Slugette in the BBC Three comedy, was given just days to live and put into palliative care last month.
Now we can reveal that in his final interview, given just weeks before his untimely death, Michael said he lived every day as if it was his last.
"They’ve been giving me the last rites all my life, saying: 'I’ve got only two weeks.' I doubt I’ve got another twenty years, but who knows? At the moment, I’ve no massive issues, problems come and go," Michael told The Sun Online just weeks before his tragic death.
Speaking from the home of his parents John and Melody, both 72, in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, he explained he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease as a baby.
"I had cancer when I was 15, it was years ago. But I was born with congenital heart disease. I have a single-ventricle heart, instead of the two pumping chambers, I have only one working pumping chamber," he explained.
"It’s a juggling act, as there’s lots of things wrong now, my liver and kidneys. I’m on palliative care, the nurses check up on me every day.
"They’ve given me a few things round the house like a stairlift and a chair to keep my feet up. It ebbs and flows.
"They sometimes give me a month or two to live, it seems to never veer off the 'dangerous' territory, but will only get 'very dangerous' for a few days, then die down again."
Michael sprung to fame as the monosyllabic Michael ‘Slugs’ Slugette, friend of Kerry and Kurtan, played by siblings Daisy and Charlie Cooper, the stars and creators of the hit BBC show.
Michael was left with an enlarged and scarred heart after he had five open heart operations from birth to ten years old - he also suffered two strokes at the age of eight.
"Now everything else is starting to knacker out a bit like the veins, my organs such as the kidneys, and liver has cirrhosis on it - and I don’t even drink anymore!" he said.
"For a normal person, your blood oxygen level is around 99 per cent, for me, it’s 75 per cent. Everyone goes: 'What? How are you still standing?' But it’s been the same for 33 years," he said.
"They’ve gone through every vein possible, it means I’ve got varicose veins everywhere and leg ulcers, which are horrible, open wounds where your shins don’t heal up for years and years."
Michael was lucky that his dad was able to help through his work as a GP and his sister Maria, who's an occupational therapist was also on hand.
"My mum has often sat and slept by my hospital bed throughout the years and sneaked in takeaway grub so I didn't have endure hospital food," he said.
"I only cope through a sense of humour. I don’t know how long I can keep jumping these hoops."
This Country was a lifeline for Michael and it was a chance meeting in a pub with the show's creator Daisy that changed his life.
"Daisy and I bumped into each other in a pub one night - she remembers me from primary school, but she was a few years younger, I didn’t have a clue who she was," he said.
"She told me she was working on a script for the BBC, this was years ago, like 2012, way before it hit TV. She was very confident that it was going to happen. I asked: 'Can I be in it?' She said: 'Yeah, ok.'
"I’d never acted in my life but got the part - thankfully all the time I’d spent acting in the shower paid off!"
Michael admitted in the first series he was close to getting the sack, as he couldn’t stop laughing at the jokes.
But they gave him a second chance after hiring a Hollywood acting coach because most of the people in the cast had no TV experience.
He said: "The first series I was awful. I thought everything was so funny, seeing Charlie act was hilarious, I would crack up constantly during takes.
"I was so close to getting fired, but they gave me a second chance, and we got the Hollywood coach in, so it was a lot easier.
"She helped a lot, I was stronger with my acting ability. So many of us had no acting experience, there was a lot of us just being the same as we are in real life. I was told: 'Don’t say it as if you’re acting, just be yourself."
With the third series reportedly due to start filming, Michael was determined to carry on playing Slugs and also star in other projects Daisy and Charlie have in store weeks before his death.
"I’m pretty much housebound for the time being, but I’ll be able to make it out for work when the show comes along. Daisy and Charlie have been really, really kind and caring," he said.
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Michael had also just finished writing a book called Memoirs Of A 90s Schoolboy.
"I feel quite blessed, I’ve done so many cool things in my life, I lived in Nepal when I was 12 for two years as my dad worked at a mission hospital in Kathmandu. My mum is from New York, so I’ve been there a few times," he said.
"As long as I can keep alive, that’s enough for me. My body keeps falling apart but I’ve been written off many times, and keep coming back. My motto is: 'Don’t take life seriously, have a laugh.'"