Adrian has had issues with his circulation for years (Image: Getty)
Feeling surprisingly tired and nauseous after a bracing walk up an Italian mountain on a summer’s day, assumed he was dehydrated. But when he realised his left leg – the site of an old football injury – was hot and swollen, he knew he should get it checked out.
An initial scan couldn’t find anything wrong, but the 57-year-old continued looking for answers, only discovering weeks later that he’d suffered a potentially life-threatening (DVT). “Just over two years ago, I drove to Croatia, my mum’s country,” he recalls. “We were driving for a long time, which may or may not have caused it. One day I climbed a mountain and felt incredibly knackered and a bit sick. I couldn’t understand why. I thought I must be dehydrated.
“Afterwards my leg was very hot, quite swollen and painful. I had a scan but they couldn’t find anything. But around six weeks later I had another which revealed I’d had DVT.”
It was, he says, “frightening in retrospect – nobody said I’d diced with death or anything, but if it gets dislodged and ends up on your lungs, things can get very unpleasant quickly.
“The clot was in my upper leg and I’ve been told, very gravely, that my leg is ‘post-thrombotic’, which sounds a lot more sci-fi and interesting than it actually is. It means there’s a horrible dried-up clot in the middle of my leg.
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“I asked if it would eventually break up but apparently it won’t. I take to guard against it happening again, which isn’t risk-free – if you get a bang on the head you can end up with a bleed on the brain.”
The former presenter has suffered with leg issues since an accident 25 years ago. “I broke my leg in October 1990 playing football. Tib and fib, it was properly broken. I was in plaster for seven months. “After the break, I started getting varicose veins, varicose eczema – it started looking a bit unsightly, a bit purpley. I was diagnosed with .
“My understanding is that the valves weren’t closing as the blood was being pumped up my leg. There are general levels of incompetence in all aspects of my life. My right leg’s magnificent, it’s just my left leg, especially from the knee down.” Doctors have been unable to confirm if damage happened at the time of the accident, as a result of being in plaster for so long, or if it was a coincidence.
For five years, Adrian managed the condition by wearing a heavy-duty class-three compression sock, giving it up 20 years ago after undergoing surgery to improve vein function with titanium clips. But after the DVT, he decided to have his leg reassessed and start wearing a again.
“One consultant said there’s no point wearing support, another said I should. All I know is, if I don’t wear them, it could swell quite alarmingly. Apart from not looking very nice, it just doesn’t feel satisfactory. If I wear a compression sock, when I take it off at night my leg looks more or less normal.
“The can flare up occasionally but if I wear the sock it’s fine. I’ve always worn them for long-haul flights too – if I don’t, it feels like my leg might explode – it really does swell up alarmingly.
“I wear it all the time unless I’m running, when the blood’s pumping around your system so you don’t need compression to maintain circulation. If I’m sitting down or, worse, standing all day the blood just slops to the bottom of my leg and it’s got no way of pumping back up without compression. It becomes swollen and itchy and I risk developing a leg ulcer.
“A vascular surgeon said it’s remarkable the leg hasn’t ulcerated. I was given full marks for my level of compliance, so I was quite proud of myself for that…”
While he’s committed to wearing the compression sock, there’s plenty to dislike. “The ones prescribed to me by my GP, class threes, are incredibly tight and a real struggle to get on, particularly in the summer when your leg’s a bit sticky. If I haven’t trimmed my nails properly, they’re very easy to tear.
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“They’re horrible-looking things, only available in medical beige. When you want to wear shorts it’s not a great look. There’s a bloke who drinks in the same pub as me who said, ‘Adrian, could you not wear them?’.”
But with no new surgical option, Adrian plans to stick with the stockings. He’s currently using bespoke compression wear from , a company that uses 3D scanning to ensure a good fit. Customers upload a mobile photo video via a mobile app to create an anatomically accurate model of their leg. “They’re made for athletes but they’re measured quite accurately, so I do prefer wearing them,” he says. “They’re a lot easier to get on than the NHS ones.”
They’re also available in black – something that may please his mate at the pub. “I’m going to test them on him this summer.”
Looking back, Adrian says: “That accident in 1990 changed my life. I’d just done a TEFL course and was about to go abroad to teach English, but couldn’t because I’d smashed my leg. I ended up doing a post-grad journalism course at Cardiff University instead, so I’ve got reason to be grateful for it happening – though if you’d told me I’d have to wear a compression sock for the rest of my life I might have thought differently.”
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