TOWIE star Chloe Meadows, 33, was rushed to hospital during filming after she ignored her worrying symptoms.
Chloe revealed she was so 'scared' of the doctors and the prospect of 'having any procedure done' that she ignored symptoms of a chronic inflammatory bowel condition for around 10 years.
Speaking on the Bedside Manners podcast with Dr Oscar Duke, Chloe said she had several health checks at the age of 26, 10 years after her symptoms first appeared.
Her mother also intervened and told her she should go to the doctor to get a blood test done as she looked 'grey'.
Following her blood test, Chloe was filming scenes for the popular reality series when she received several missed calls from her father, who then texted her to say a doctor had advised she should go straight to A&E because her 'blood was so low'.
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TOWIE's Chloe Meadows, 33, revealed she was rushed to hospital during filming after ignoring symptoms of a chronic inflammatory bowel condition for around 10 years
Speaking on the Bedside Manners podcast with Dr Oscar Duke, Chloe said she had several health checks at the age of 26, 10 years after her symptoms first appeared
She said: 'I went to the hospital. I had to have all of these checks and these iron infusions, and that was where it started.'
Chloe also revealed she had suffered from probably her longest flare-up after filming a nerve-wracking scene on TOWIE.
Recalling how she first discovered blood in her stool at the age of 16, she said: 'I went to a college where I boarded when I was 16.
'I was staying away from home, and I was living in a student house, and there was blood down the toilet.
'I remember I told my mum, and I was like, "There's quite a lot of blood down the toilet. I'm not really sure what's going on," she was of course like, go to the doctors.
'I went to the doctors, and they said that I would have to have a colonoscopy, which is a camera into the bowel.
Chloe added: 'At this point in my life, I had never really ever been to the hospital. I'd never been sick. I'd never had any procedure or operation. I'd never been sedated.
'I'd never had anything, and the doctor referred me, and I got this letter, and this is awful, but I got this letter, and I just never went to the appointment because I was terrified.
At the time her mother also intervened and told her she should go to the doctor to get a blood test done as she looked grey
She continued: 'Then I ignored it, and what would happen, which is what I realise now, is that I can go into remission, I can go into a flare-up in remission.
'It would stop for periods of time so that the blood would go away. I'd be like, "Oh, cool, it's gone away, I'm better. There's nothing wrong with me".
'I'd go through years where it wouldn't happen, and then it would happen again, and then it would stop again.
'I would probably lie to my mum about how much it would happen because she always pestered me about it, and I was like, "No, it's fine".
Chloe admitted she was scared of having any procedure done, adding: 'I was also scared of what they were going to tell me.
'I was just terrified, which is not really a reason not to go to the doctor, but I think that's just what I thought.
She said: 'I went to the hospital. I had to have all of these checks and these iron infusions, and that was where it started' (pictured in 2024)
'I was young as well, so I would forget when there wasn't blood down the toilet, I would completely forget.'
According to the NHS website, Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed.
Symptoms include recurring diarrhoea, which may contain blood, extreme tiredness, loss of appetite and weight loss.
Some people with ulcerative colitis may go for weeks or months with very mild symptoms or none at all (remission), followed by flare-ups and relapses.
