Countryfile stars' health woes – including Matt Baker's recovery from 'painful' injury

Last year, Matt Baker, 47, revealed that he was suffering from back pain after having suffered a herniated disc. Reflecting on the ordeal, he told The Sun: "It's a pain; it's really challenging to get back and fully fit again. "I'm still like really... yeah, it's really tough. I'm just trying to do rehab all the time, stretch, and do strength training exercises and that."

Matt found the inflexibility that the hernia caused a challenge, in particular, having come from a sporty background. "For a long time now, I've been dealing with a herniated disc. As an ex-gymnast, it's hard not to be able to bend forward, so I decided to have a nerve block injection," he penned on social media. "What a brilliant surgeon and lovely NHS team it was that did my treatment. Thank you all! (Also, a big thanks to the nurse who used to watch me on Blue Peter – the buttered toast was amazing)."

John Craven, 85, has said previously that issues with his health "crept up on him" over the years. In his 40s, he started having blurred vision, which was eventually corrected by wearing glasses. Once in his sixties, the veteran presenter noticed his hearing had "begun to fail". 

"I couldn't make out conversations in crowded places, the sounds of nature became muffled, and 'say it again' started to become a common response," he revealed. John was later fitted with hearing aids, which may come in useful during the Children in Need ramble, as he has praised their ability to remove "wind noise" when he is outside.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Smith, 61, has previously battled a misdiagnosis, having believed for years that she had a rare and potentially fatal lung disease, Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). "The doctor was honest and told me all the stats, including it being 10 years, on average, between diagnosis and needing a lung transplant or even death," the presenter said, recalling a previous tough conversation with a medical professional. 

Eight years later, she had an operation for a collapsed lung, which discovered that she did not have the disease. "They discovered that I am very lucky. I do not have that disease," she revealed in 2018.

"I was misdiagnosed - which actually I'm very relaxed about because to be told you don't have something is much better than being told you do." However, her lungs still cause her trouble. "They have holes in them and they don't really know why," she admitted. "So I have about 80 per cent of the lung capacity a fit person would."

While not related to his own health, farmer Adam, 59, has had to navigate ill health in his family after his wife, Charlie, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2021. Charlie fell ill over Christmas in 2020 and medics discovered a 4.5cm tumour two months later. She underwent surgery that removed part of her pancreas, and she has since recovered.

"She has to take certain enzymes when she eats because the piece of the pancreas that has been removed means her enzymes aren't active enough to digest her food properly," Adam told BBC Gloucestershire. "We went through the mill, but we have come out the other side. It was a very, very difficult time for her in particular, but for us as a family."