I’m A Celebrity… South Africa star Dean Gaffney has opened up on how the show’s medical checks saved his life (Picture: Rex)
Dean Gaffney has said there is ‘no doubt’ the reality show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! saved his life after medical checks found signs of bowel cancer.
The former EastEnders actor, 45, first appeared in the jungle in 2006 before returning for the all-stars version of the show in the South African bush which aired on ITV this month, where he narrowly missed out on a place in the final alongside Helen Flanagan.
But Gaffney has revealed that doctors examined him in 2020 ahead of a possible appearance on the show during Covid at Gwrych Castle in North Wales and found a number of polyps in his large intestine that needed immediate surgery.
‘There is no doubt I’m A Celeb and its medical team saved my life. I might not be here today if it wasn’t for them finding what they did,’ he revealed.
The grandfather-of-two was one of the 12 stars on standby to take the place of any campmate that caught Covid in 2020, and he remembered begin called into a medical in October after securing his place as a standby.
‘I thought nothing of it and did the routine blood tests. When it came back, it showed I was losing blood.
The former EastEnders star appeared in the most recent series, but was also a standby in 2020, when the polyps were found (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)
With I’m A Celeb co-star Joe Swash (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)
‘They thought it might be anaemia or an iron deficiency. I thought they were being a bit over the top,’ he confessed to The Mirror.
‘Later that day the results showed they had found polyps which were massive. One was huge. I think 20mm, which is big for a polyp.’
Following the operation, Gaffney explained the doctors were ‘slightly angry’, asking why he had not noticed blood in his stool.
The doctors reportedly told him that had he not been seen by them when he was then in three years he could have been battling bowel cancer.
Gaffney first appeared on I’m A Celeb back in 2006 (Picture: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)
They also emphasised that the TV star was ‘very lucky’.
The actor now hopes to follow in the footsteps of BowelBabe fundraiser Dame Deborah James, who died age 40 in June last year, and raise awareness of the disease.
Calling her efforts ‘an inspiration to so many’, Gaffney said that if he could ‘do a small fraction of that for men, it’d make me very happy’.
The actor hopes to now rraise awareness, like Dame Deboarh James (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
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I’m A Celebrity… South Africa was ultimately won by Myleene Klass in scenes aired on Friday night.
She became a first-time winner 17 years after her first stint on the show (where she finished runner-up) and defeated former Olympic javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread, Diversity dancer and Kiss FM presenter Jordan Banjo and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell.
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He was lined-up as a standby star in 2020, which is when doctors made the discovery.