On Friday 26 May this year, James Macintyre was advised to go to Accident & Emergency, after experiencing stomach pains. He was sent immediately to ICU, where he was diagnosed with acute or “severe” pancreatitis.

He would spend the next four months in hospital, which included two months in the ICU and five weeks in a coma. Doctors thought that he might not survive.

On the podcast this week, James talks about how the experience has shaped his faith, and given him renewed appreciation of family, friends, medical staff, and parish priests.

As he wrote in the Church Times last month (Comment, 27 October): “There was no hiding from the notion that I’d been given a second chance, an opportunity, to repent of past sins, to keep away from bad habits, and to head in a different direction.”

James Macintyre is a journalist who has worked for publications including The Independent, The New Statesman, and Christian Today. He is a co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the making of a Labour leader (Biteback Publishing, 2012).

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