Mitch Winehouse, father of the troubled UK singer Amy Winehouse, revealed to the UK newspaper The Sunday Mirror over the weekend that his daughter is suffering from early stage emphysema due to her fondness for smoking “crack cocaine and cigarettes” and may be relegated to a wheelchair “within a month” if she does not heed the warnings of her doctors. This discovery was made after Amy finally succumbed to hospital treatment after collapsing in her home early last week. Here are pics of Mitch escorting Amy to one of her many visits to rehab before finally going to the hospital to undergo tests last Monday:

The troubled singer Amy Winehouse, right, has early stage emphysema as a result of smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes and may need an oxygen mask to breathe if she cannot stop, her father told a British newspaper, The Sunday Mirror, in an interview. Ms. Winehouse, 24, was taken to the hospital last Monday after a collapse and underwent tests last week. “The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” her father, Mitch Winehouse, said. Mr. Winehouse, who said his daughter also had an irregular heartbeat, added that focusing on her work has sometimes helped her to stay away from drugs, and that had she not performed recently in Moscow and Portugal, “she could have been dead by now.” Ms. Winehouse is scheduled to sing on Friday at a London concert celebrating the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela and also plans to take part in the Glastonbury music festival on Saturday.

Daddy Winehouse gave an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mirror this weekend where he opened up about his daughter’s health and his hopes that she will finally work towards taking her health seriously …

Here are a portion of the interview that Mitch Winehouse gave to The Sunday Mirror this weekend:

In an emotional interview, her devastated father Mitch told the Sunday Mirror how watching his daughter deteriorate reminded him of his own 78-year-old mother struggling for breath on an aspirator before she died of lung cancer. Worried dad Mitch said: “To think this could be my beautiful 24-year-old daughter’s life is preposterous. But if drugs mean more to her than breathing properly, then so be it. But the doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her. It’s been a tough week.” Mitch also told of his fears as Amy underwent tests after a mystery lump was found on her chest during scans at private London hospital The Clinic. He said: “After lots of tests they found a lump in Amy’s chest. A scan has shown it’s not cancerous and there are no traces of cancer in her blood. But they might need to double check. “There is a chance she might need a biopsy. If they need to cut the lump out then that will mean a massive and painful operation and a lot of recuperation. At the moment that doesn’t look likely. “When they told me she had a lump, I was very, very worried. At times Amy seems nervous about it but she doesn’t panic until something’s 100 per cent.” Ex-cabbie Mitch revealed how he recognised “warning signs” that Amy would have a seizure after noticing her eyes were squinting at a family lunch last Sunday. Then at 4pm on Monday, he rushed the troubled star to hospital in the back of his cab after she collapsed in a fit at her home in Camden, North London. She has suffered two seizures in the past year, including one last August when she was hospitalised after a huge drugs binge. Mitch added: “When I saw her last Sunday lunch at her favourite Spanish bar in Camden she was just picking at her tapas and salad. Her eyes kept on squinting and flickering and I said to her then how that had happened the last time she had a seizure. I even called her manager Ray to tell him. Amy just brushed it off and said she had a headache. But the next day she collapsed. I got a call when I was out for lunch. An ambulance came but she sent it away. “But she wanted to go to hospital this time and she could walk so I put her in the back of the cab. She didn’t talk much and I could see her in the mirror falling asleep. “When we got to the hospital a room was ready. Several doctors came in and checked to make sure she didn’t need any emergency treatment. They operaput her on a drip straight away because she was dehydrated. She said, ‘Don’t worry about me, Dad. I know I’ve got to stop taking drugs now’. At the hospital we found she’d been awake for 48 hours. We can only speculate she’d been taking drugs all that time. She curled up in bed and went to sleep. In between tests, she slept for almost three days solid.” The lung-damage caused by emphysema is irreversible and can lead some sufferers to become dependent on oxygen supplies. Skeletal Amy was also suffering from irregular heartbeats when admitted. Terrified she risks losing her life, she has now vowed to stay clean and started a drug replacement programme on Tuesday. Mitch said: “The doctors have said that if she had continued the way she was going she could have ended up an invalid – she wouldn’t have been able to breathe” … “With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 per cent lung capacity” … Mitch is now terrified that Amy – who is being watched by a nurse 24 hours a day and is expected to be in hospital for another week – will discharge herself as soon as she feels better and will fall straight back into her old ways. He has called for Amy’s drug dealers and circle of drug addict pals included troubled rocker Pete Doherty – to stay away from her. He said: “I’m saying to those drug dealers, and they know who they are, if they are supplying crack to Amy, then they’ve got to take responsibility. I don’t want her hanging out with her mates like Pete Doherty either” … Mitch has visited Amy’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil three times in jail, where he is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to GBH and conspiring to pervert justice. Blake, 26, is calling Amy every day “to help her stay strong”. Mitch said: “Blake apologised to me for getting Amy into drugs and says he’s going to try and put it right. Blake was clean when I saw him but he’s told me he wants to go into rehab. We’ve organised it so that as soon as he’s out, that happens. He wants to go from zero to hero. It’s very hard for him being in prison, but at least he’s been trying. “He wants me to live with Amy in her house in Camden when she’s out of hospital, but at the moment I don’t really want to do that” … “My family have been criticised for not doing enough for Amy. Some say we should put her in a room and throw away the key but that’s against the law. In our limited way, we are doing the best we can and we are being guided by the doctors and psychologists. “There’s no need to cry yet. If, God forbid, doctors said they can’t help her, then that’s when we can have a good cry. But if she doesn’t go back to drugs then she can lead this magnificent life. With her husband Blake too, if he gets clean as well.” He added: “We are praying that that’s what Amy really wants. She seems resolute. “I’ve started to see my old Amy back. We’ll just have to see how great her resolution is.”

Wow! Could this be the wake-up call that will finally snap Amy Winehouse out of her downward spiral and help her get her life back in order? I really hope that Amy does start to take her health seriously. She is such a hugely talented performer and it is so sad to watch her life fritter away because of her reckless drug use. Emphysema is no joke, the damage that has been done to her lungs is irreversible … she needs to straighten up and quick. It is my sincere wish that from here on out, we’ll see a change in Amy — a change that will show that she is serious about staying healthy and, you know, alive. Get well soon, Amy … you’re running out of second chances.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source, Source]