DICKIE Bird has spoken for the first time about health problems which will see him go into hospital for an operation next week.

Dickie will undergo surgery on Tuesday to replace a pacemaker, and while the operation is planned and relatively routine, he has chosen to speak exclusively to the Chronicle about suffering a stroke, and the long-term condition of an irregular heartbeat which was diagnosed eight years ago.

That required the fitting of his current pacemaker.

“When you get to my age, I’ll be 85 in April, you realise life really is very precious,” said Dickie, who wanted to thank and pay tribute to the health professionals who have cared for him.

He also hopes by speaking out about it, he might encourage ‘even just one’ person to stop ignoring a health complaint they were hoping would just go away.

“I’ve got this irregular heartbeat. A lot of sports people have it, but I didn’t know a thing about it until eight years ago,” he said.

“I just kept blacking out. I know a couple of people who’ve told me they’ve had this blacking out, and I’ve told them they need to get that checked out straight away. You can’t take chances with your health.”

Dickie has never spoken publicly about it before, but a small number of people might know he had problems because a couple of the incidents were in public places and the public came to his help.

“I just kept going over, and I’d be out for a few minutes. But then I’d come round and be all right, thinking nothing was wrong.

“One time it was at the Talbot at Mapplewell, in the restaurant upstairs. I was having lunch on my own.

“I was lucky because there was a nurse in the restaurant and she helped me. But all I knew was waking up in the ambulance saying ‘what am I doing in here, I’m fine’.

“It happened in Asda in Barnsley too.”

Dickie eventually saw a specialist in Sheffield and was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and fitted with a pacemaker. Dickie also suffered a stroke around the same time.

“I owe everything to Barnsley Hospital because they saved my life. They really did.

“I’ve never spoken to anyone about my health before apart from family, but I really do want to thank Barnsley Hospital and all the doctors and nurses who have looked after me.”

Dickie has enjoyed better health since. Next week’s operation to renew his pacemaker will be conducted while Dickie is awake and under an epidural - a localised anaesthetic in his spine which means he doesn’t have to have a general anaesthetic.

“I’ll be able to watch it happening on the big screen,” he said.

Dickie said he had some nervous feelings about his operation but had been assured there was ‘nothing to worry about’, and had also been cheered up by another letter from the Queen in response to his Christmas card.

“It’s a very nice letter wishing me the best for the new year and asking how I am getting on. It’s a wonderful thing to receive.”

Dickie has met the Queen on 29 occasions and ‘lost count’ of the number of letters he has received from Buckingham Palace.