Turning the Tables –
MAY 1, 2019 – DJ Fresh still vividly remembers where he was the moment he knew his health was in trouble. “I was sitting in traffic on the Hammersmith flyover, driving home from the airport after a weekend of gigs,” he says. “I woke up on the bridge — I’d just passed out at the wheel. When I came round, my first thought was relief that I hadn’t driven over the side. Then there were sirens, and the police turned up. Luckily, somehow, and I don’t remember how, I’d broken my clutch. I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell the police I’d just passed out at the wheel, so I just told them that my clutch was broken, and thankfully that was that.”
Fresh’s health was indeed at risk. Little did he know at the time, he was suffering from a tumour in his pancreas, a condition that doctors repeatedly failed to diagnose over the coming months. Some even went as far as suggesting that the problems were psychosomatic rather than physical. “In the end it was an incredible doctor,” Fresh says. “I have to give her a shout-out by name, because she is worthy of my gratitude — Diane Brown — who discovered what it was.
