Jimmy Carr says meningitis left him “close to death” as a child

Jimmy Carr has opened up about a life-threatening health condition he suffered as a child.

The comedian has shared how he was diagnosed with meningitis as a child and was left “close to death”.

Speaking on the Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake podcast with Kathy Burke, Carr, who is now aged 51, spoke about the childhood experience. “I had meningitis when I was a child. So my first memory is a lumbar puncture in Limerick in the General [hospital].”

He added: “I was three, I think, and … I was always told it was very close to death.”

He explained his experience in hospital, and how as three-year-old he was able to make his mother laugh: “The doctor sort of went, ‘It’s going to be very painful.’ And somehow I’d heard the phrase, and I went, ‘You’ve got to be cruel to be kind,’ in a little child’s voice.”

He went on to explain how the ordeal has made him more grateful for his life: “And I kind of appreciated that thing of life, because I was always told, ‘Oh, you nearly didn’t make it’.”

According to the NHS, meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. If not treated quickly, it can be very serious, and is most common in babies, young children, teenagers and young adults.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Carr shared how he would like to die, opting for being “ravaged by sharks”.

He explained: “I want my kids and the people that love me to [be able to tell a story like], ‘Oh, Jimmy died… funny story. He flew to South Africa and he went on one of those great shark cage experiences and he forgoed the cage. He said, no cage for me, thanks. I’ll just jump in there with a fish’.”

He added: “That would be a way to go.”