TV chef Shane Rigney has undergone an angiogram procedure in hospital and used the experience to issue a stark warning about vaping, drinking, and diet. The Irish star shared a photo from his hospital bed on Instagram, dressed in a gown and hooked up to machines, revealing he had spent £20,000 on the procedure after letting his insurance lapse.
Procedure and Gratitude
Rigney, known for his TV cooking shows, posted: "So grateful to the staff at St James’s Hospital, wee procedure done and dusted, went very well and under control now thank God." He added: "Feeling full of gratitude, energy and life and dying for this next chapter. Doctors and nurses were incredible today and Dr Anthony Buckley from Blackrock who saved me about 20k (yes actually because I let my insurance go) is a rockstar."
In Ireland, the healthcare system is not fully free; residents can access the public system but often pay subsidised fees for certain services, including hospital stays.
Lifestyle Wake-Up Call
Rigney described the experience as "a huge wake up call for me on lifestyle choices. Even peppered with ‘healthy’ spells and considering genetics, there’s a lot of things I could have done better or more likely didn’t do to protect and respect my body but that’s for another day because causation and effect is complicated in my case."
He urged: "Men and friends, look after yourselves! Cut down the boozing, watch the diet, even if you don’t cut out then add in the right stuff, get moving and for the love of Christ f**k the vapes in the bin! Never again with those yokes!"
Vaping Health Risks
Vaping has come under further scrutiny after a recent study found that certain flavours can put users at greater risk of cancer, heart, immune, and respiratory conditions. According to the NHS Better Health Guide, vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking because it does not produce tar, tobacco, or carbon monoxide. However, adult smokers using vapes to quit cigarettes are advised to stick to legal, regulated products and avoid anything with unclear ingredients, suspiciously high nicotine claims, or non-compliant packaging.
A study published in Frontiers in Oncology reported that regular vapers who smoke fruity flavours, such as berry, mango, and watermelon, showed altered activity in 3,124 genes across the genome compared with people who did not smoke or vape. This matters because changes in gene activity can be early biological signals linked to disease pathways, including cancer, heart, immune, and respiratory conditions.
