Richard Madeley recalls near-death experience of choking

By Sean O'Grady, Press Association Deputy Entertainment Editor

Richard Madeley has revealed he almost choked to death on a piece of beef and was saved by his sister.

The TV presenter, 70, said he swallowed a piece of “very rare beef” without chewing properly during a “lively discussion” and it went “straight into the windpipe”.

Speaking to Dr Hilary Jones on Good Morning Britain, he said: “I tried to cough it up but I had no air in the lungs to do that. I suddenly realised I was choking.

“Pandemonium ensued. People came round behind me, they were hammering on my back. The minutes ticked by and it wouldn’t dislodge.

“After two-and-a-half, three minutes, I began to feel my world closing in, black dots coming on the side [of my eyes], I began to feel very weak and a calm sense of acceptance coming, ‘oh, this is it, this is how I’m going to go.’”

Madeley’s sister Liz Lawrence, who is trained in the Heimlich manoeuvre, was present at the dinner and rushed in from the toilet to save him.

He said: “She did the Heimlich on me. One, two, three times and it didn’t work, it was still lodged.

“I felt my knees give way and I went down and as I went down, thank God, she did it again.

“The combination of gravity and her doing it harder than ever before dislodged the beef, got a little bit of air in and managed to cough it up, and 10 seconds later I was back in the room, but it was touch and go.

“If she hadn’t known what to do, I would’ve died.”