Martin Roberts turns 59 today, and it's a birthday he'll no doubt enjoy every second of after a terrifying heart condition saw him come within 'hours' of death earlier this year.
The Homes Under the Hammer host was rushed to hospital with chest pains in April, where he underwent life-saving surgery to remove fluid that was constricting his heart.
Recalling the moment he watched doctors plunge an "eight inch needle" into his chest, he said: "It's the nearest thing to not being here that has ever happened to me."
He told OK! magazine: "In my case, it turns to something called a cardiac tamponade, which is where it fills rapidly and starts strangling the heart. And that's... that's the killer. It can result in death.
"I watched as they drew out syringe after syringe after syringe of this liquid. I was awake for this, but I was bit woozy. There was a tube that went in through my chest cavity, down into the sack around my heart."
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He was discharged a week later but must undergo regular check ups after 'residual problems' were picked up on an MRI scan.
Sadly it's not Martin's first health scare.
Last year he was hospitalised with a potentially 'serious' infection – leaving him briefly bed-bound and attached to a drip.
The presenter rushed himself to A&E as a recurring infection returned and spread from one part of his body to the other.
He explained online that he was suffering from cellulitis – a painful skin infection that is caused when bacteria penetrates deep under the layers of the skin, and which can turn serious if not urgently treated.
Computer errors meant Martin was forced to get emergency treatment as he was not able to get the medication he needed locally..
Explaining his ordeal on Twitter, Martin said: "Bl**dy cellulitis has flared up again and it’s spread to my other leg too.
"The chemists wouldn’t give me the antibiotics I’d been prescribed, despite seeing my leg, due to a ‘system error’ and no recognition of how serious this is... So A&E for me."
After successfully receiving treatment, Martin went on to share a video of himself at a McDonalds at 4am as he celebrated getting out of hospital.
There was one scare that actually changed his life for the better though, and that was when he collapsed at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and a woman called Kirsty came to his aid. That woman would later become his wife.
During an NSPCC charity climb for ITV, Martin was climbing Africa's highest mountain when he suddenly felt high-altitude sickness and collapsed.
"I drank the contents of this beer bottle in 1999 at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro when I was reporting on an NSPCC charity climb for ITV’s Wish You Were Here…?," he told Mail Online.
"I’d never met my wife Kirsty before, but she was on the climb too raising money. Her granny had made her a fruit cake to take and kept on piece for the summit.
"At the top I collapsed with altitude sickness, and out of the mist came Kirsty bearing this final piece of cake for me. I have to admit – it was love at first bite!"
The couple, who got married in 2010, live with their children, Megan and Scott, near Bath in Somerset and the property expert, investor, entrepreneur and author has a staggering net worth of £1.2 million
The 58-year-old started out his career at BBC Radio Manchester in the late 80s before working as a property developer, then hosted a number of TV shows such as Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and Wish You Were Here...?.
As the BBC's UK and Overseas Property expert, Martin has made regular appearances on BBC Breakfast, BBC News and The One Show.
But he is most famous for hosting the BBC's flagship daytime property show, Homes Under the Hammer, since it first started airing back in 2003.
And last year he took part in ITV's Real Full Monty in honour of his best friend Dave Hughes, who died from bowel cancer back in March 2017.
His life was shattered when his close pal of 35 years broke the news of his diagnosis, and tragically died two years later, leaving behind his wife Sarah and their teenage girls
Speaking to The Mirror, Martin said: "Two years later, Dave died. Bowel cancer, diagnosed a critical time too late, had spread to other organs, and the best man at my wedding, my confidante, my rock and sounding board, my best buddy was cruelly yanked from my life and the life of all those who loved him - including his wife Sarah and their two teenage daughters.
"Sarah is convinced he’d still be here if he’d gone to the doctors the first time he noticed blood in his poo. But like many blokes, he procrastinated. And he didn’t push for more checks when he finally visited the doctors and was told that everything was 'fine', knowing in himself that by that time, things really weren’t."
Dave dealt with the pain in a "selfless and non-dramatic way" and worked on Martin's property radio show on Talk Radio, where he was introduced as 'DIY DAVE', through his final 18 months.
Martin dedicated his Strictly the Real Full Monty performance to Dave, who he said would be "laughing his socks off" at the prospect of seeing his mate strip off on telly.
"I’ve happily managed 35 years on TV without revealing any part of my private anatomy, so the idea of getting stark b*****k naked in front of millions of TV viewers and a 3,000-strong audience fills me with utter horror," confessed Martin.
"But I’ve been dieting to try to lose a few lockdown inches, and Sarah, my hastily employed personal trainer, had five weeks to get me from ‘creaking’ to ‘vaguely flexible’.
"So yes, Dave would be laughing, but he’d also be very proud. And if one person gets to the doctors sooner than they would otherwise have as a result of my efforts, then this will be the most important TV show I’ve ever been involved with."
Martin also starred in ITV'S I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in 2016 where he famously clashed with Gavin and Stacey star Larry Lamb.
A bullying row erupted after Larry was seen berating the TV host in the camp. Martin later accused the actor of trying to turn people against him and of making barbs about his weight that were not shown on screen. Larry denied the claims.
Martin told The Mirror at the time: “Larry tried to undermine me and the group and he tried to turn people against me. I’ve heard that he actually said on camera that I was a ‘f****** lower middle class snob’. I don’t understand what that is. But clearly it’s not very nice.
“I lived a long time in the jungle with Larry and it turns out a lot of the stuff that he did to me wasn’t shown.
“One thing that hurt most was when he was interviewed after a challenge and I heard him say: ‘He doesn’t need to win, because he’s a porker and he doesn’t need the food’. The day before, I talked about how I was badly bullied because I was fat, so Larry heard all of that.
“I didn’t say anything to him but it hurt a lot and I said to the producer at the time, ‘Please don’t use that’. The only way I survived in the jungle was putting an emotional protective bubble around myself, otherwise I would have been a wreck.”
Larry hit back at the claims, saying: “Any suggestion of bullying is nonsense. I’m sorry Martin feels that way, I wish he’d said something to me.”
According to Martin, they later buried the feud with a tearful hug back at the hotel.
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