GOK Wan’s wrapped up against the cold, with his eyes shielded by sunglasses as he walks his dog, the flamboyantlynamed Dolly Albertine Dishcloth. He jokes that the French bulldog puppy insists he gets up early to go for a walk and he’s clearly devoted to her.

“She makes me come out in the morning no matter what sort of shape I’m in or what aches and pains I’m suffering from,” he says with an indulgent smile.

It would be all too easy to assume a high-octane celebrity lifestyle is taking its toll on the fashion consultant, author and TV presenter, but in fact his lifestyle has had to be pared down because he is suffering from a severe back problem, which means he sometimes has to use a walking stick.

“It’s been a really tough year,” he says. “I’ve had to have seven operations on my back, which was a real shock. It started in March when I went to the gym and felt this pain, which turned out to be slipped discs.

“I had physio treatment, but one morning as I bent over in the shower I was plunged into absolute agony. I was losing the feeling in the lower part of my body because the pain was so intense.”

Within a few hours he’d had the first of two discectomy operations, where the soft part of the damaged disc is removed to take pressure off the nerve in the back, and has subsequently had surgery five more times to treat the area.

“Most people recover within around five months, but mine is still a problem. The nerve canal in the spine is inflamed and hasn’t settled so all sorts of doctors are looking at it trying to work out the mystery of how to sort it. Trust my back to be attentionseeking.”

Stoically, the 38-year-old refuses to see it as anything more than a temporary set-back and won’t scale down his workload. “ I’m a proud workaholic.

I love my life which goes at a million miles an hour and if I’m really busy it’s not unusual for me to put in around 100 hours a week,” he says.

“It’s frustrating and has got me down if sometimes I haven’t been able to go at that speed, because if I get very tired it can put the back out. But I’m so headstrong and tunnel-visioned that even if I was in agony it wouldn’t stop me doing what I do best – working – and I don’t want people to feel sorry for me.

“Dolly’s so helpful as she makes me focus on her needs and distracts me from focusing on being in low-level daily pain.”

OVERCOMING challenges is not unfamiliar to Gok, the son of an English mother, Myra, and Chinese father, John, who was brought up in Leicester.

In his autobiography, Through Thick And Thin, he revisited painful memories of being bullied at school because he was a gay, overweight teenager, and at his heaviest 21st.

Later, while he was at the Central School Of Speech And Drama in London he developed anorexia, losing 10st in months. “You just have to come through these things,” he says philosophically, and undoubtedly his experiences gave him his empathy with those who suffer from body image issues and low self-esteem over their appearance.

He credits his family with helping him through the tough times in his life. “My parents are incredible and have been so supportive of me all my life.

My dad gave me this incredibly strong work ethic and so much drive.

“Having people in your life who boost your selfconfidence and instil a sense of self-worth is vital and I’m always grateful for it.”

While his focus is continually on new career goals and challenges – “I’m never afraid of failure. I’m more afraid of regretting not giving something new a go” – he hopes one day to have a family. “But for the time being I’m just going to have to satisfy my paternal instincts by looking after Dolly.”