Matthew Corbett beat coronavirus after 10 days in ICU

Matthew Corbett beat coronavirus after spending 10 days in intensive care.

\'The Sooty Show\' star - whose real name is Peter Graham Matthew Corbett - was fighting for his life after he was rushed to Warrington General Hospital with the deadly virus, and he then caught pneumonia.

Speaking to Cheshire Life, he said: "I caught corona. I was in Warrington General Hospital for 10 nights and have been told since that it was touch-and-go as to whether I would survive.

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"As a result of the coronavirus I then got pneumonia, which led to atrial fibrillation. It was much worse for my family than for me. They were terrified, they thought I wasn\'t coming out of hospital."

The 72-year-old puppeteer rose to fame after taking over the children\'s television show in 1976, after his father - Sooty creator Harry Corbett - retired.

However, falling ill has been a "wake up call" for Matthew - who retired in 1998 - as he plans to swap his home in Lymm for a retirement village in Horsham with his wife Sallie, where he will be closer to his children.

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The virus has left him short of breath, and he now has trouble getting around the house and doing his daily tasks.

He added: "It\'s been a wake-up call. Seven weeks later I still get so out of breath and am so weak, and I just cannot deal with this house. I can\'t mow the lawn, it\'s too big, and I can\'t carry down the shopping.

"We\'re moving to a retirement village in Horsham, in West Sussex, where everything is on the doorstep. It\'s close to our children and to Gatwick, so we shall have the best of all worlds."