Therese Coffey says brain abscess caused by stress of minister job nearly killed her

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Ms Coffey blamed the brain abscess on the stress of her role at the time as a junior environment minister. “I came close to dying, and I think looking back that if my sister hadn’t phoned St Thomas’s and they hadn’t done that scan, I probably would have been dead in a matter of days.” Ms Coffey described how Clare, who works in her parliamentary office, had “never known me the way I was” and phoned the hospital to raise concerns. She said: “So my mum, who must have been in her eighties by then, came up and we did the flashing blues and twos down to King’s College hospital and I was operated on that night.” Ms Coffey said: “I woke up the next morning, and the thing I was most distressed about was that I had lost my eyebrows. I came close to dying, and I think looking back that if my sister hadn’t phoned St Thomas’ Hospital and they hadn’t done that scan, I probably would have been dead in a matter of days.”