Emma Willis has undergone emergency surgery after coming down with a severe case of appendicitis.
The ‘Big Brother’ presenter has spent the last week in hospital, after admitting herself with a stomach ache.
It turned out that her pain was actually a “horribly infected appendix”, which required an urgent operation.
Emma has since thanked NHS staff for her care, as she opened up about her ordeal on Instagram.
Sharing a photo of herself in hospital with her surgeon, she wrote: “It’s been a funny old week…. Post 1 of 2… A week ago yesterday, I was meant to take @mattjwillis on a surprise birthday trip to Ibiza.
“Instead, at 6am, I entered Barnet General A&E with a stomach ache that was getting progressively worse. I thought I may be wasting everyone’s time with a bad case of trapped wind, but 9 hours later, I was wheeled into theatre and what they found was a horribly infected appendix.
“The man in this picture was my surgeon, Marco Venza. He, and his team, were incredible. Thank you so so much for taking care of me and for putting me at ease every time I panicked!”
She added: “Thank you to Amy, Scarlet, Karen, Caroline, Sophia, Jan, Mary-Beth, Gemma, Maha, Clement, Gabriel, and all the other brilliant and kind people who work on Damson ward.
“And finally, to everyone working their butts off within the NHS fighting to make it work, thank YOU! #longlivetheNHS.”
Once she is back on her feet, Emma is due to front the new series of ‘Big Brother’, which kicks off next month.
Bosses revealed a new eye logo for the 18th civilian series last week, which has a British theme, with producers remarking the Channel 5 show will “present a must-watch culture clash of modern Britain”.
It seems they are making a concerted effort to return ‘Big Brother’ to its social experiment roots too, as they added fans should be ready “for a very British summer of contrasts, conflicts and collaboration...and more fireworks than you could imagine, as a selection of people, from a range of backgrounds, come together.”