Television presenter Richard Bacon has praised Lewisham Hospital staff for how quickly they acted to save his life.

The 42-year-old was recently taken ill on a flight from the US to the UK with suspected pneumonia.

After his symptoms got worse he was put into a six-day coma to allow his body to fight the infection and to save his life.

On July 5 the presenter tweeted: “I’m A&E (in Lewisham) on the NHS’s 70th birthday. I don’t like to miss a party.”

Now though he is out of the coma and cannot thank the NHS enough, saying that Britain is so lucky to have such a system.

He suffered an unidentified double chest infection and due to the speed in which his conditions worsened it was necessary to put him in a medically induced coma.

Richard has now tweeted: “This is how good Lewisham Hospital is. I walked in off the street simply complaining of being short of breath. With 90 minutes they had placed me into a life saving six day coma. #VivaTheNHS.”

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS (@LG_NHS) tweeted in response: "Thanks for the kind words: we are so proud of our staff. Everyone is delighted you are recovering."