Welsh diva Ceri Dupree suffered a heart attack, a stroke and was put in an induced coma
In September 2025, drag artist Ceri Dupree suffered a heart attack and a stroke. Now he’s back performing for the first since coming out of a coma(Image: Lee Humphreys)
In September 2025, Welsh female impersonator Ceri Dupree and his assistant were driving back to Cardiff after a successful show in Penzance, Cornwall when he began to feel unwell.
Lee Humphreys, who had worked for Ceri for six years, but been friends for 15 years, looked over at his boss and realised he was unresponsive. Minutes from the performer’s house, his 41-year-old assistant later performed lifesaving CPR for 15 minutes straight on him before medical professionals took over.
After a heart attack, a stroke and an induced coma Ceri is back performing for the first time in five months.
The drag artist will be heading back home to Swansea to perform his annual birthday show, which will have an additional celebration this year- a celebration of life! From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What’s On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here
Lee from Pontypridd shared what happened on that traumatic autumnal night.
He said: “We were chatting and he said he felt a bit hot and sweaty, but he had been throwing himself around all night doing 15-16 costume changes in the show, which is normal for him to be tired and exhausted and he just said ‘I just feel tired’.
“So we got back to Cardiff, got as far as Cardiff Bay, and I was chatting away and as I turned he was unresponsive. He then slumped on top of me whilst I was driving. I managed to get the van to Ceri’s house and I got him out of the van, rang 999 whilst I was doing compressions on him.
“He was completely unresponsive, no heartbeats, no breathing and I managed to do CPR on him for 15 minutes. Until the fantastic team from the air ambulance on road team turned up. There were two ambulances, one critical care vehicle turned up and they worked on him and his heart had stopped for 26 minutes.”
The moment still stays with Lee, he said: “I still have, you know, flashbacks every now and again. It’s just, I’ve seen him.
“I mean my sister-in-law is an intensive care nurse and she said, you know, it’s one thing to do CPR on someone and it’s even worse when it’s a friend or a loved one because, you don’t want to hurt them, but of course you know that it’s something you’ve got to do. It’s fight or flight really. “
“Doctors have explained it to me and said that, you know, some people just freeze in that instance and have just not been able to do anything. For me it was a normal reaction. So I just think, oh, well, why wouldn’t I?”
Lee (right) performed life saving CPR on his boss and friend Ceri Dupree(Image: Lee Humphreys)
Within the first hour of reaching the hospital the 61-year-old had a heart attack and suffered a stroke. Ceri’s friends and family rushed to his bed side at the University Hospital of Wales as he was left in a coma.
He spent a week in intensive care, with his loved ones being warned “the likelihood of brain damage was very high because of the amount of time his brain was starved of oxygen” and to “be prepared for the worst, that he may not respond.”
Lee said: “It was caused by a hole in the heart and a clot passed through the hole, and they did say by me doing compressions on him that I had possibly broken down the clot and also was pumping oxygen to his brain, which meant he wasn’t being starved of oxygen.”
When they tried to take him off the intubation there was no response, so they put him back in to an induced coma. A couple of days later X-rays showed no brain damage and they took him off the ventilators, and he was able to blink. The next day, the man was talking.
Ceri shared his memories of waking up in hospital, he said: “The patient’s report, it says patient’s first words, ‘what the f**k’.
“Imagine, I’m sat there in a flipping hospital, and I’ve got a bag and then I’ve got wires and tubes, and all of a sudden I see my sister and I see eight or nine of my close friends. Anybody would swear, I think.
“I kept swearing and Lee said, ‘Ceri, stop swearing, stop swearing’. Then when they explained to me what happened, honestly, it took me about three or four days to understand. I was still in the daze. I couldn’t take it all in, you know.”
Lee shared: “He justified all of the odds, the doctors and nurses just couldn’t believe it. He was up and about, you know, within about two days, walking with the frame, and we were concerned that he’d lost some of his memory and he couldn’t write for a couple of days, but it all came back and he was discharged about a week later.”
Ceri is known for performing in and out of drag(Image: Lee Humphreys)
After three weeks in hospital Ceri said the team at the Heath hospital and the air ambulance were “fantastic.” Not only is he thankful for his experience with the health service, but also for his dear friend Lee who saved his life.
Ceri explained: “Honestly, if I’d be on my own, I wouldn’t have survived.
“It was only a fluke that Lee came back to the house, because Lee lives five minutes down the road from me and normally I drop him off home and I go back to my house. But the reason we didn’t was because we were due to fly to Barcelona to do four shows out in Spain the next morning.
“If we hadn’t done that, if I hadn’t had to fly to Spain on on that Sunday, then I would’ve come back home and I would have been on my own, and I’d have been a goner.”
Five months on from the ordeal, Ceri will be returning to the stage for the first time with his annual big birthday show. He will be joined by various artists to perform a cabaret at Swansea’s Taliesin Theatre on Saturday, January 24.
Ceri shared: “My sister was told that there could be brain damage and you know he won’t perform again and all this, and here I am ready to go back on stage now on the 24th of this month with a show, and I can’t quite believe that because when I think about it the chips were down, I really have been lucky.
“When i went to see my local doctor in Penarth he said ‘Ceri I can’t believe you’re sat in front of me’ and I said ‘what do you mean?’ to which he said ‘well you should be dead.’
“The doctor explained, if people have a cardiac arrest out of hospital without any medical attention, it’s less than 10% the survival rate. I said, ‘wow, I’m lucky, aren’t I?’ He said, ‘yeah, you are very lucky.’ So yeah, here we are.”
Fans of the drag artist will be thankful to hear he is performing again.(Image: Lee Humphreys)
He took his recovery seriously and thankfully has only been left with a few aches and pains. Ceri said: “I took it slowly, I rested and I listened to the doctors and I wasn’t allowed visitors and then I could have visitors and it was fantastic because I had 157 cards sent to me and I had flowers and hampers.
“Honestly, if I didn’t think I was loved before, I know now. I was so touched and so humbled and so it just helped me, and it helped me push through it and everything.
“So I haven’t thrown myself in. I haven’t been stupid. We’ve gone very, very slowly back to back to work, you know, because obviously you can’t. You know, you can’t run before you can walk.”
Lee said: “We never thought he’d work again, and youk now his work is his life he’s the hardest working person I’ve ever met and his dream would be to do a show 365 days of the year.
“So yeah, it’s going to be a very emotional night given the fact that we never thought he would perform again. Just to see him back up on stage again and doing everything in all his glory, I mean, I’ve got to try and work and not cry at the same time.”
You can find more information on Ceri Dupree’s Birthday Show at the Taliesin Theatre here.