According to the BBC News, Mr. Mitch Winehouse, Amy Winehouse’s father, has declared that his daughter was diagnosed with early stage emphysema, a disease that affects the lungs and can lead to death.

The British diva has been taken to a London hospital about a week ago, after she fainted in her apartment after an autograph session with her fans. Hospital staff kept her for a week for examinations, trying to pinpoint the cause of her fainting. At last, the doctors have found that Amy has emphysema, and have presented some extremely dark scenarios of what might have happened if the singer would have been brought to the hospital a month later.

The doctors have said that the main causes that led to Amy’s condition are her smoking crack heroin and cigarettes. Her father, Mitch, declared that his daughter is trying to quit smoking, and that she uses nicotine patches to help her doing that.

Emphysema is a disease that affects the lungs and is usually caused by long time exposures to toxic chemicals, like cigarette smoke. The disease affects the structure of the lungs and impairs exhalation, leading to shortness of breath or, if the lungs cannot deliver enough oxygen to the blood, death.

Even though emphysema develops during years and years of smoking, it is accelerated by drug consumption as well as having an unhealthy diet and leading a certain lifestyle.

However, Mitch Winehouse said that her daughter could recover completely. "With patience, her lungs will recover completely and she's responding brilliantly to treatment - she's actually flourishing," Mr Winehouse said quoted by BBC.

Doctors say that the British diva is healthy enough to perform onstage this Friday at the concert that celebrates Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, as well as at a festival that takes place the next day.

Amy Winehouse’s father said that he is happy that she will be able to perform, because singing on stage seems to be one of the best methods of regulating her drug habits.