Winehouse health crisis

The singer has emphysema and her father speaks out

22 June 2008 - Amy Winehouse has early stage emphysema, a condition usually associated with smoking, according to an interview with her father Mitch in The Sunday Mirror.

He told the paper that doctors said if the singer had continued in the way she was going, she would have ended up an invalid.

He said: “She's got emphysema. It's in its early stages, but had it gone on for another month they painted a very vivid picture of her sitting there with a mask on her face struggling to breathe.”

He said that while Amy’s voice may be ruined by smoking, emphysema is potentially life threatening, and regaining her health will require a total change of lifestyle. He said he doesn’t want “her hanging out with mates like Pete Doherty either.”

Mitch spoke to the BBC before Amy had been admitted to hospital and he responsed to suggestions that her record company have been putting her under pressure to release new material: “Nothing could be further from the truth. They (the record company) want her to produce an album when she's ready.

“Unfortunately for every album she produces, she's got to give 10 pints of blood and cut her heart out - that's her music. She's never going to sit at a piano and write a Cole Porter song...”

However in the Sunday Mirror, he said he now hopes Amy will be able to sing at Glastonbury next weekend, because he believes singing has saved her life.

He has said that doctors have said medically there is no reason for her to stop singing and according to him; “she abstains and regulates her drug use when she has to do a show.”

Victoria Hannaford