Former Coronation Street star Chris Fountain ‘back on his feet’ after surgery

By Mike Bedigan, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

Former Coronation Street actor Chris Fountain has said he is “back on his feet” after undergoing surgery following a mini-stroke last year.

The 35-year-old, who played Weatherfield’s Tommy Duckworth in the long-running soap, said he was still “aching and sore” and had been “really quite nervous” before the operation.

Last year, Fountain revealed he had suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) – known as a mini-stroke – after a blood clot lodged in his brain.

He told the Daily Mirror the incident had left him “speaking like a toddler” and he had spent five days in hospital in London.

A post on his Instagram story on Friday showed the actor walking slowly round a hospital in a medical gown.

“Yes guys, back on my feet. They’ve cleared me to walk a little bit,” he said.

“(My) groin is hurting a bit, just like sore and aching, but I’m glad to be out of bed because my legs were starting to go numb – what a day.”

He continued: “I have to be honest I was really quite nervous when I went into the anaesthetist’s room. It all became very real.

“But it was really nice when I started to go to sleep, it felt lovely.

Fountain added that he had “some tests”, saying: “They came to do some echocardiograms just to check the device is in the right place and working and not leaking and all that.

“So far so good.”

Earlier he had posted updates for his fans to his Instagram story showing him arriving at the hospital with his mother, and immediately after the surgery where he said he felt “woozy”.

Speaking to the Mirror in October 2022, Fountain said he had broken down in tears when doctors informed him he had suffered a TIA.

After several days of tests at a specialist stroke unit at the Royal London Hospital, medics determined the actor had a hole in his heart which had caused the blood clot to travel to his brain, triggering the stroke.