Showband Legend's Battle Against Heart Disease
By Sandra Chapman (s.chapman@newsletter.co.uk)
Tuesday, 17th May 2005
A particular operation may help Tony Morelli sing again but he is the victim of
an NHS waiting list which seems to get longer by the day. SANDRA CHAPMAN talks
to the showband legend who would give a lot to be thrilling audiences again
When he took the stage of the Waterfront Hall for the second of two showband
concerts a few years ago, Tony Morelli brought the house down with his
magnificent singing voice.
This was a man who had made a recovery from major heart surgery and who
looked set to enjoy the revival of the showband era which had kept Ireland
enthralled for decades. Tony was an early member of the Dave Glover Showband but
was perhaps better known for his time with the Witnesses Showband. For such a
small man, his towering voice was legendary and, at the Waterfront in Belfast
that night it was as though he had never been away. The audience adored him.
Life is very different for Tony today. Not only is that magnificent voice
silenced, he can no longer climb the stairs at his Belfast home nor can he take
a walk. Tony lives with heart failure, a condition which affects upwards of
20,000 people throughout the UK. It's possible a medical procedure could help
him regain some quality of life but he can't afford to have it done privately
and the health service is letting him down. He hasn't the energy to complain.
Heart failure is a disorder in which the heart loses its ability to pump blood
efficiently throughout the body. It may affect the left, right or both sides of
the heart. If the left half of the heart fails (left ventricular failure), fluid
will build up in the lungs due to congestion of the veins of the lungs. If the
right half of the heart fails, general body vein pressure will increase and
fluid will accumulate in the body, especially the tissues of the legs and
abdominal organs (of these, the liver is the organ most likely to be affected).
The last time Tony was in hospital, he had the equivalent of 10lb weight of
fluid removed.This is a temporary procedure and the fluid gathers again.
Unfortunately, Tony is familiar with heart disease. It killed his mother at 67,
the same age he is now, and his father who was 76. Tony had rheumatic fever when
he was a young teenager, a condition that can lead to scarring and inflammation
of the heart structures. He fears that that condition may have had something to
do with his failing health now. He spent three years off school recovering.
But music was his life and he eventually developed the powerful singing voice
which took him all over the world, helping to establish Irish showband music
internationally. In the early days, his day job was laying wood-block floors,
then, when the showbands petered out, he went into cabaret and was well known
around local clubs such as the Abercorn, the Piccadilly and the Trocadero. But
he was feeling the strain and at 55 had a triple heart by-pass.
So his brave comeback at the Waterfront some years ago had particular
poignancy for his fans. But it didn't signal a return to the big time. Tony: "I
was fine after the by-pass but every so often you have to go back for check-ups.
At one of these, it was discovered that one of the arteries to my heart was
fuzzing over. The procedure to deal with this involves a stent being put into
the artery to open it up. It involves not much more than an overnight stay in
hospital."
Unfortunately for Tony, the procedure, which was performed two years ago,
became much more serious and he began to bleed internally. He was whisked away
for emergency surgery and was warned he might take a while to recover. His
health didn't improve and eventually he was diagnosed with heart failure. Tony:
"It means that one of the heart chambers is not working properly and fills with
fluid. It restricts me terribly. I can hardly walk at all, a few yards and I'm
out of breath." His condition is complicated by the fact that he also has Type 1
diabetes and has to inject insulin twice a day.
He takes 14 different tablets a day, some of which cause him to cough.
Singing is out of the question. And it's this inability to sing that hurts so
much. Tony: "The showband days were great and I had a wonderful life all over
the world. But I accept that my health may have been compromised even then
because you were always on the move and not eating as well as you should. I
suppose we lived on junk food."
Today he lives quietly with his wife Kathleen, with whom he has four children
and nine grandchildren, at Ladybrook in Belfast. He accepts he has no quality of
life and a heart transplant is out of the question. But there is a procedure
that may help. Tony: "It's a procedure that brings the heart back into rhythm
which may prevent it filling up with fluid. But I believe there are hundreds on
the waiting list for this. "I'm waiting for an appointment to see a consultant
and the waiting time for that is five months alone. If I am suitable for the
procedure, I'd then go on another waiting list and this could take a long time.
It's a very expensive procedure to have done privately." When once he gave
pleasure to thousands, today Tony says he has no contentment in life: "It's very
distressing and I'm depressed nearly all of the time. All I can do is live in
hope." His former fans also live in hope of one day seeing him again on stage. *
For more information on heart failure contact the NI Chest Heart & Stroke
Association, telephone 028 90 320184 or the Helpline
08457 697299
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