Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody credits his acupuncturist pal with saving his life after he got seriously ill two years ago.
The 41-year-old Irishman has revealed he started having health issues when he was on a trip to Paris for the European Championship in 2016, where he woke up at his hotel feeling so "dizzy", he phoned a friend to ask if they had been in an earthquake.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Gary said: "I had my tickets and flights booked for all the matches and was going to France with four friends," explains Lightbody.
"I woke up one morning and wasn’t feeling very well – physically unwell.
"I was doing my exercises and I bent down to touch my toes and when I came up, it was like it was an earthquake.
"I was dizzy and everything was moving. I phoned a friend who lived nearby and went to see a doctor."
As soon as the ‘Chasing Cars’ hitmaker was told that there wasn’t an earthquake, he immediately phoned a doctor, who advised him to head to hospital, where he was told he wouldn’t be able to travel home.
He recalled: "I had tests and basically my whole head, eyes, ears, nose and sinuses were infected. I was told I needed an operation and there was no way I could get on a plane."
Luckily, his friend offered to use the alternative Chinese medicine treatment, in which thin needles are inserted into the body, to make him better.
She also advised him that he should cut back on the booze, which paid off as the singer has been two years sober after previously using alcohol to drown out his depression for seven years.
As a thank you, Gary penned the track ‘Heal Me’ on the band’s first album in seven years, ‘Wildness’.
He added: "She also asked me to calm down on the drinking.
"So I stopped. That was two years ago and I credit my friend with saving my life.
"The song ‘Heal Me’ is written all about the experience."
Gary Lightbody: My acupuncturist pal saved my life
