Clarence Hill, who won Bermuda’s first medal at the Olympic Games, has said he is facing a battle for his life.

The 74-year-old, who won a boxing bronze medal in Montreal in 1976, is living with a life-threatening heart condition and has spent the past several months in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital under close supervision of doctors.

“This is a battle for my life and I am worried because being your heart, it’s a life-threatening situation and anybody would be worried or concerned,” Hill told The Royal Gazette.

The former heavyweight boxer was advised by concerned neighbours to see a doctor after experiencing disorientation on a number of occasions.

“I felt dizzy every time I used to get out of bed and walk a certain distance,” he said.

“I felt dizzy and was ready to fall. I went down the steps a couple of times and almost fell down, so I told some of my neighbours about it and they advised me to go to the doctor.

“I went to the doctor and told him about it so he advised me to come here to the hospital. I came in and they did what they had to do before finding out my heart is acting up.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not the way it should be. It’s pumping less blood than it should and that’s why I get dizzy so quickly.”

Hill says doctors are still to determine whether surgery is an option that will be offered to him.

“They have never mentioned anything about surgery and I am just waiting on them to see,” he said.

“They give me a whole lot of pills that I take in the mornings and sometimes I wake up through the night and can’t sleep.

“I am just waiting to see what they do because I don’t know anything about medical stuff. I just have to depend on them to do the right thing.”

Despite his daily challenges, Hill remains optimistic that the potential is there to make a full recovery.

“I believe I will overcome this,” Hill said. “I believe in the Lord and a lot of times I don’t do what He wants me to do. But I know that He is real and I pray and read my Word daily, so right now my hands are in His hands. What He feels is good for me and what can I do but say thank you.

“We have to realise, as I have for many years, that we don’t live for ever. We have to go sometimes and if the Lord is calling me, all I ask is for Him to take me peacefully and not give me the hard way out. I don’t want to go, but that’s something we cannot stop. Everybody has got to go.”

Hill, who was inducted into the Bermuda Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, has time to look back on his life and is grateful for the success the sport of boxing has brought him.

“I have done a lot in my life as people in Bermuda know; bad things and good things but more good things,” he said.

“I’ve represented my country, I am the first Olympic medal-winner for my country and I have travelled. I have been to a few places that I never thought I would and in all those things I thank God and thank life.

“We don’t live for ever and you never know situations as they come, so every morning I speak to everyone and try to be upbeat. I know my heart is acting up and at any time it could be over. We just never know.”