Millions of Brits will have raised a glass over Christmas, but few will have been as grateful for its contents as Roland Aldom.
The French describe brandy as eau-de-vie – water of life – and that is certainly the case for Mr Aldom, who owes his good health to a pioneering heart operation involving neat alcohol.
As reported in the Western Daily Press on Christmas Eve cardiologist Dr Tom Johnson reckons without the revolutionary treatment, Mr Aldom would never have left the Bristol Heart Institute hospital.
The 77-year-old from Portishead in North Somerset was suffering from a life-threatening heart defect called ventricular tachycardia which meant his heart was not beating properly.
After standard treatment methods failed, Dr Johnson and his team decided drastic action was needed.
They ran a catheter into his heart from an incision in his groin, where they inflated a small balloon to clear a blocked artery, and injected neat alcohol into his heart to kill the damaged part of the heart.
Raising a glass over Christmas with wife Pam he said: "I feel fine now – it's amazing what a drop of booze will do.
"It cleared everything up, and now I don't get any pain."
The former construction worker added: "It just proves to show that alcohol can be good for you."
Doctors reckon Mr Aldom is now doing fine and should make a full recovery.
