Louis Walsh shares blood cancer diagnosis as pal admits 'he's frail' in CBB
Louis Walsh has revealed he has been fighting a rare form of blood cancer.
The former X Factor judge was diagnosed with waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia. Speaking on Celebrity Big Brother, the 71-year-old star said he was recovering from a rare cancer, adding that it had been a “reality check”.
Louis made the admission in a conversation with housemates Levi Roots and Ekin-Su. Asked about his experiences in lockdown, he replied: “I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick. I had cancer – a mild version, a rare one, in my blood.
“I didn’t even know I had it until I went to the hospital. They checked me and then they found it.” Louis said it affected him mentally. Pointing to his head, he admitted: “It’s just up here, even when I go past a hospital I almost get sick. It’s all gone, I’m fine. It was just the shock of being sick and that word – nobody wants that word.
Louis opened up on his diagnosis on Celebrity Big Brother (REX/Shutterstock for Big Brother)“I have it blocked out, a reality check.You see so many people sick and it’s terrible. In my world it was all about pop music and all that. I didn’t think of anybody getting sick or anything like that. And that was like, wow, reality check – you’re in the real world.”
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Friends of the star told the Mirror the condition is the reason why Louis has been sleeping so much in the ITV reality show’s house. A source said: “Louis is in remission currently but you can see how frail he is and that he has lost a lot of weight. It’s also the reason why he’s sleeping so much, it all took a lot out of him.
“The whole experience was the main driver behind signing up for the show. He’d been really ill and just wanted to enjoy life again and thought ‘what the hell’.” The friend said that Louis been suffering the condition in lockown and received incredible care in Dublin but it left him feeling very isolated.
They added: “It’s little wonder he has decided to immerse himself in the Celebrity Big Brother house. It’s almost as a reaction to what has happened. It was quite the ordeal, not least as the cancer is so rare that it took a while to get diagnosed.”
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It is not known what treatment Louis received, although sufferers often have chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Around 350 people in the UK are diagnosed with waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia each year.
It occurs when certain blood cells called plasma cells develop in an unusual way in the bone marrow. A slow-growing type of blood cancer, it is classed as a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Plasma cells are blood cells that release antibodies and help people fight infection.
Louis’s former X Factor co-star Sharon Osbourne, 71 – who exited the Celebrity Big Brother house after eight days – was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002. It spread to her lymph nodes but she survived the disease after surgery.
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.
Celebrity Big Brother continues tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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