TOWIE star opens up about recent Crohn’s disease diagnosis

The Only Way Is Essex star Sam Faiers opened up about her recent Crohn’s disease diagnosis on ITV’s This Morning.

In her first TV interview since her diagnosis, the 23-year-old, who fell ill during Celebrity Big Brother, revealed that she felt fine for the first few days on the show before her symptoms hit hard.

She said: “For three to four days I was fine and getting to know people until the symptoms hit really hard.”  Talking about her symptoms, the reality show star told the show’s hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that she “couldn’t hold food down for nearly a month.”

She explained: “They were really really bad stomach cramps, I couldn’t hold food down and I had diarrhoea, I didn’t know what was happening to me.”

The TOWIE star added: There were a couple of days in the house where I couldn’t even get myself out of bed. I was shivering cold, when they told us they were extending, I thought to myself ‘Can I do this?'”

The star, who is now learning to control her illness says that her doctor believes she may have had the condition “for up to a year.”

Well done to Sam for being so open about her illness.