The BBC presenter DJ Spoony has thanked the NHS and his family after being treated in hospital for a small bleed to the brain over the Christmas period.
The Radio 2 host, whose real name is Johnathan Joseph, told listeners on Monday that he had been suffering with headaches for a few weeks but had put off being seen by a doctor until 21 December, when he decided to go to A&E.
He said of the doctors at Bedford hospital: “They did some tests and said they were going to give me a little [CT] scan, and then he came back with the scan results, and he said: ‘Look, it looks like you have a small bleed to the brain, and we need to send you over to Addenbrooke’s [hospital in Cambridge], the specialist there has seen it’.”
The 54-year-old said he was told that doctors needed to operate and he would not be able to eat for more than 10 hours.
“The amazing doctors and nurses at Addenbrooke’s had done the operation, [they] had flushed me out. I was feeling fine, 10 minutes after the operation. I was talking looking forward to being back on the ward, eating a banana and having a ginger shot,” he said.
“That’s all I could think about, because I’d been nil-by-mouth for about 14 hours, got back on to the ward, and I was just fine.”
The presenter added: “Thank you to everybody at Addenbrooke’s for looking after me, you were amazing … to all my family and friends, and to everybody … [I] just couldn’t wait to get back in the studio and do what I love doing.
“I really thought I’d be able to handle that without getting emotional.”
He then played Sounds of Blackness’s 1994 song Hold On (Change Is Comin’), which he said was “appropriate”.
On his Instagram account, the radio presenter said it was a subdural hematoma, a condition where there is bleeding in the brain, and said he spent the morning of Christmas Day in hospital.
In 2022, he was recognised with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to charity through music during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he hosted regular livestreams using his equipment at home to play a variety of music to help people “connect” and raise money for charity.
Joseph started his radio career at Kiss 100 in 1997 before joining BBC Radio 1 three years later.
