Karren Brady: my brush with death changed my life forever

 
1/2
29 April 2013
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Karren Brady has revealed how a potentially fatal illness changed her life forever.

The businesswoman was treated for a brain aneurysm seven years ago and was told by doctors she had a 30% chance of dying.

The Apprentice star - who has two children - told Hello! Magazine: "I would never have done The Apprentice had I not gone through the experience.

"It made me realise that life is short - and fun - and that you should try new things. I really believe in life-long learning. The moment you think you know it all is when you don't know anything at all."

Her husband Paul said the illness changed his wife considerably.

He said: "It made her softer and she's less likely to get so fraught about the unimportant things that used to wind her up".

Brady, who started her working life at Saatchi & Saatchi when she was 18 and is currently vice-chairman at West Ham United, said she now regrets going back to work within days after giving birth to her daughter Sophia 17 years ago.

She said: "I regret that, but I didn't understand then.

"In those days, there was no such thing as flexible working or a work-life balance. It is absolutely essential that you take time off when you have a family. I just didn't know that then and nobody told me that it was okay. I was still trying to prove myself so I carried on working."

Brady said she now liked nothing more than staying at home and cooking for her family.

She said: "We rarely go out and I love to cook. We do a lot of Friday night dinners and Sunday lunches. A slow-roast lamb is my speciality, or a king prawn curry on a Saturday night."

Read the full article in Hello! magazine, out now

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in