Perthshire SNP minister Jim Fairlie said he was shocked but not surprised when he suffered a heart attack in the Scottish Parliament.
The farmer-turned-MSP has always been active and even scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in 2022, less than 12 months before he took ill.
He used to run six miles most days when he was in his 20s and thought nothing of running half-marathons at the weekend.
But Mr Fairlie, now aged 57, said keeping that up has been tough as he gets older along with the intense pressures of political life.
Now the Perthshire South and Kinross-shire MSP, also the SNP’s agriculture minister, is on a renewed fitness drive to improve his physical and mental health.
Speaking to The Courier, Mr Fairlie said he was not entirely unsurprised after being taken from Holyrood to hospital on September 12 last year because of the hereditary problems that run in his family.
“It’s always a shock when you face your own mortality, but it wasn’t a surprise given the family history,” he told us.
Mr Fairlie spent three days in hospital and a month recovering at home before he was able to properly return to work.
He said his health struggles made him “reappraise” how he takes care of himself while working in a busy, demanding job.
“I became very aware after I got elected about the amount of muscle mass I was losing, but also how unfit I was becoming,” he said.
He added: “I’ve definitely felt heavier and more sluggish since I took over the ministerial post.
“It’s also exhausting. The hours are unbelievable. It is just a relentless kind of work pressure.
“I’ve kind of tried to get myself into a space where I was looking after myself better than I had been.”
‘I was always at my best when I was active’
Mr Fairlie said keeping active as he gets older has been frustrating since he is no longer capable of doing as much as he could in his 20s.
He told us: “Once you get into your mid 50s, you feel as though you’re capable of still doing all the things that you could do before, but you’re just not.
“You think you can do what you did when you were in your 20s and 30s, and then because you can’t, it gets you down.
“I was always at my best when I was active, both for my physical health and my mental health.”
To combat that Mr Fairlie has started using the Couch to 5K fitness app, a targeted programme which helps runners gradually build up their stamina.
The agriculture minister posted a video on social media on Sunday, saying he felt “brilliant” at the end of his first run.
Former First Minister Humza Yousaf said he was following the same fitness plan earlier this month following his departure as SNP leader.
The ex-SNP leader said he had “neglected” his health during his time in charge of Scotland and hoped exercising more would help his physical and mental wellbeing.
Mr Fairlie said: “It feels like you’ve actually done something in a structured way.
“You’re on a programme that is going to get you toward the kind of fitness I used to have.
“That’s why I thought it was worth talking about.”
He added: “Once I get into a rhythm of running, it feels like a well-oiled machine.
“I remember that feeling and want to get back to that.”
In October 2022, we shared an emotional video Mr Fairlie posted when he reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The MSP had been climbing the highest free-standing mountain in memory of his late brother, world-renowned chef Andrew Fairlie.
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