Louis Walsh has shared that he’s been battling a rare type of blood cancer.
The music manager, known for his time on The X Factor, found out he had waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia. On Celebrity Big Brother, the 71-year-old told fans how the illness had made him think hard about life.
He opened up to Levi Roots and Ekin-Su in the house. When they talked about how lockdown was, Louis said: “I was sick, and I think nobody knew I was sick. I had cancer a mild version, a rare one, in my blood.
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“I didn’t even know I had it until I went to the hospital. They checked me and then they found it.”
He said it was tough on his mind, reports the Mirror. Touching his head, he said: “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 explained how it made him see things differently. He added: “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.”
Friends of Louis have shared with the Mirror that his current health condition is why he’s been sleeping a lot in the Celebrity Big Brother house. A source revealed: “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 explained that Louis had been dealing with the illness during lockdown and received excellent care in Dublin, but it left him feeling very lonely.
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.”
(Image: Ray Burmiston/REX/Shutterstock)
The specific treatment Louis underwent is unknown, but people with his condition often receive chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia, the type of cancer Louis has, affects around 350 people in the UK each year.
This cancer happens when certain blood cells called plasma cells grow abnormally in the bone marrow. It’s a slow-growing type of blood cancer and is considered a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Plasma cells are blood cells that release antibodies to help us fight infections.
Louis’s former X Factor buddy, Sharon Osbourne, 71 who left the Celebrity Big Brother house after eight days was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002. It spread to her lymph nodes which was treated with surgery.
The Macmillan Support Line offers secret help to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to chat, call us on 0808 808 0000.
Celebrity Big Brother will be back tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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