The Loose Women ladies were left fighting back tears on Monday, after fellow presenter Kelle Bryan shared her painful experience living with lupus.
Kelle has suffered from the health condition for a number of years and though she appears to be “fine” on the outside, she is often in excruciating pain.
Explaining the condition in more detail, Kelle bravely said: “It has been a really difficult journey. It’s not just me going through it. There are so many people out there struggling with lupus.
“For me it’s about raising awareness of the disease and helping others to understand it more. There’s not very much tolerance or understanding for the disease.”
Lupus is long-term condition that affects the immune system. It is often known to cause problems with skin, joints, kidneys and other organs.
(Image: ITV)
Talking about her diagnosis, Kelle said: “One morning I woke up and I couldn’t bend my right index finger. I thought I’d slept awkwardly, so didn’t worry too much about it.
“My right hand then became a claw shape and it wouldn’t sort of open. That went down the rest of my body. I got ulcers in my mouth, I started to lose my hair. I wasn’t able to eat because I had mouth ulcers. Eventually, after a very long period of time I was diagnosed.”
Presenter Charlene White who was evidently holding back tears said we can tell that it was a “huge uphill battle” for Kelle and everyone is “proud of her”.
She added: “I’ve had to learn to speak, to walk again. I had cerebral lupus which meant a swelling of my brain. I had a seizure, I lost about three days of my life that I don’t remember at all.
“My family say I was awake and I was very much functioning, but I don’t remember it at all.
“Going through that rehabilitation stage of my life, learning to speak and the struggle of trying to communicate something and not being able to, wanting to have normal conversations with somebody and not being able to get the words out… The words from your head to your mouth… the frustrations of not being able to be around my children, because they were a risk to me. “
She continued: “I’m hypersensitive to infection and Kayori came home one day with a cold and gave it to me, and 48 hours later I was in intensive care and I had pneumonia.
“It’s those sides of the disease that people don’t know about and there’s no awareness about it.
“I guess I want to say, if you do get a rash or feel like you’ve been overtired, got sore joints, nothing seems to make sense to you – it’s not necessary that it is lupus, but go double check, ask your GP to test you or visit Lupus Trust online where there’s more info there. There’s lots of support there for you.
The star added: “Full credit goes to the NHS. I have an amazing consultant. They’ve really looked after my care over the last 20 years of my life. I’ve become stable now.
“Now I have 8-monthly infusions. That keeps me well and healthy, keeps the blood cells under control, so they’re not fighting me to a point where I can’t function.
“That enables me to live a really good quality of life and enables me to do all the things you guys see me doing.”
Viewers were also touched by Kelle’s story and took to Twitter to air their views.
One fan penned: “I never knew Kelle had been through this. I’ve heard her mention lupus before but didn’t know how much she had suffered. My heart goes out to her.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
