In 2008, while staying with the brother of his wife Charlotte in the Scottish Highlands, he, Charlotte and her brother suffered accidental poisoning from consuming non-edible mushrooms known as lethal webcaps. All three were placed on kidney dialysis. When his heart began to fail as a result of the dialysis, he had to undergo a kidney transplant, receiving one of his daughter's kidneys. Charlotte later received a kidney transplant from a friend.
