Olympic champion Tom Ransley says his rowing training helped him through a night of pain and fear which could have left his life in danger.

The 31-year-old former King’s School Canterbury pupil had to undergo emergency surgery to remove his appendix earlier this month, just hours before he was due to depart to join the GB squad at the second World Cup meeting of the season in Poznan, Poland.

Rio hero Ransley – who claimed gold in the men’s eight four years after having to settle for bronze at London 2012 – put a typically brave face on things.

He revealed: “I’d had a fever and a stomach bug and was ill for a few days before, but I felt like I had turned the corner, I was starting to feel like I could eat and drink again.

“One night I went to bed though and in the early hours of the morning a shed-load of pain came over me. I knew something was seriously wrong.

“Of course you worry. It was a very different pain to the pain I’m used to through training and racing, but I was able to use some of the processes I have learned from rowing to deal with it.

“It got me through the next five minutes, and the five after that. That’s all I was looking at it as.

“I managed to get through until 6am and then I thought it was an acceptable time to call the team doctor – I had thought, probably foolishly looking back, that it would be rude to do it in the middle of the night.”

He revealed: “She told me to go straight to hospital and I was in surgery later that day. In hindsight again I probably should have gone there straight away in the middle of the night.

“I think I was probably paranoid that I’d get there and they’d just say ‘Ooh have you got a little belly ache? Go home.’ In the end it was actually pretty serious.

“If it had ruptured it would have been a lot more problematic and people do die from it.”

Ransley, who hails from Woodchurch, Ashford, admitted the timing could have been worse, coming just 300 days after his Rio Olympic triumph, adding: “It was a big relief it sat tight until now.

“I was disappointed to miss out on the World Cup, of course, and I’ll probably miss the third one too (in Switzerland), but hopefully I’ll be fine by the World Championships in Sarasota, Florida in late September.”

Ransley is a double world champion but wants to help the new-look eight to land him a hat-trick as the only member of the Rio eight returning to the boat this year for the new Olympic cycle.

He said: “You have to ask yourself if you still want to continue, but if you still love the training then it is an easy decision to make.

“For me, I still love the training and I have got a new role as a sort of leader of the eight to help it develop.

“I am not complacent though, if you are not performing then there are always people trying to take your seat in the
boat.”

He added: “It’s important not to rush the recovery and break open the wound.
“I think the NHS advice after something like this is to rest completely for a couple of months, but that’s just not going to happen in my case.

“On the plus side I’ve had my tonsils out and now my appendix. There’s not much left in there.”