Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost has opened up about his battle with fibromyalgia, a painful and incurable condition affecting around 2.5 million people in the UK. The 56-year-old gardener has been managing the long-term syndrome, which causes widespread pain, fatigue, and other symptoms.
Gardening as therapy
In an interview with the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine, Adam explained how plants and music have been his escape. He said: "I worked out that I've used plants and music all my life as a way of escape." He added: "Each part of my garden now is associated with a song. Some of my plants have connections to grandparents, my friends, adventures I've had when I've been abroad."
Since joining BBC Gardeners' World as co-presenter alongside Monty Don in 2016, Adam has also spoken about how gardening helped him through a period of depression, which led to sessions with a psychiatrist.
Psychiatrist's blunt advice
Recalling the counsel from those sessions, he told the Mail: "What came out of it was that I shouldn't retire. He told me I'd be dead in 18 months... 'If you're thinking about retiring, go up the high street, there's an undertakers, go in and choose yourself a box.'"
Reflecting on the unexpected advice, Adam remarked: "And I thought: 'You're supposed to be helping me.' It was brilliant." He continued: "My old man used to say: 'Busy hand, busy hands', and I'm like that. I'm a grafter, but I have a different mindset now. I get up to have a nice day. Why would I retire? Retire and do what? Garden? At least this way I get paid for it."
Family crises
Adam also revealed a recent family crisis when his wife Sulina became critically unwell with sepsis, requiring a 12-week hospital stay.
He detailed the challenges he faced when his 15-year-old daughter began self-harming and later developed an eating disorder. Describing his struggle to keep their lives intact, he said: "Then I caught Covid. I went into a room on my own for 10 days and my brain, all the adrenaline I'd been living on - everything came crashing down. I was sitting in a corner bawling my eyes out."
