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TV gardener Monty Don suffers stroke

23/05/2008

The TV gardener Monty Don has suffered a stroke at the age of 52.

The Gardeners' World presenter will now stand down from all his TV presenting duties, the BBC confirmed.

A statement declared: "Monty Don has decided to stand down as the main presenter of Gardeners' World.

"Monty has presented the series for the past five years but has been off our screens for the past six weeks as a result of a minor stroke. Although he is making a good recovery he feels unable to commit to regular filming for a while.

"Monty will be sorely missed by viewers and production team. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to work with him again sometime in the future.

"We are now beginning a search for the new presenter of Gardeners' World."

The famous gardener took over from Alan Titchmarsh as the host of Gardeners' World in 2003 and recently appeared in the BBC series Around The World in 80 Gardens.

Don announced today that he would be taking the rest of the summer off to recover from the stroke.

"I am proud to have led Gardeners' World for the past five years and have enjoyed every minute of sharing my passion with the programme's viewers," he said.

"I intend to take some gardening leave for the rest of the summer to make a full recovery and so that I am ready to tackle new projects."