Featured Image Credit: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock/ITV/Shutterstock
Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Im A Celebrity, ITV, Health, Cancer
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Im A Celebrity, ITV, Health, Cancer
Dean Gaffney has revealed he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the I'm A Celebrity medical team.
The EastEnders star opened up about his experience in the jungle and disclosed that the ITV show's medical team made a life-saving discovery.
Gaffney said he 'might not be here today' if it wasn't for their assistance.
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Gaffney entered the jungle in South Africa for the spin-off show joined by a bunch of fellow star-studded I'm A Celeb alumni to take part in this year's brand-new 'Legend' series.
Joining the soap star, who was previously in the Australian jungle back in 2006, was series winner Myleene Klass, runner-up Jordan Banjo, Carol Vorderman and Shaun Ryder.
However, before he graced the jungle and our screens this year, Gaffney had a massive health scare.
But, thanks to the help of the medical team at ITV, the actor managed to overcome the stress and get the issues sorted.
Gaffney revealed he was originally set to enter the jungle back in 2020 and underwent an array of medical checks which discovered warning signs of bowel cancer.
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Routine blood tests found he was 'losing blood' and doctors later decided to give him a gastroscopy and a colonoscopy to further investigate.
The 45-year-old told the Mirror that doctors found some polyps in his large intestine with one of them being up to '20mm' in size.
Upon making the discovery, Gaffney had an emergency procedure the same year where they 'burned the polyps' away.
He said: "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."
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Gaffney added that he was 'lucky' to have gone through the various medical examinations after doctors revealed things could have gotten a lot worse if he hadn't been properly checked.
The doctor told him: "Had you not come to us today, in three years that could have turned to bowel cancer. You’ve been very lucky."
Three years on, Gaffney has since decided to use his platform to spread information and raise awareness of bowel cancer and its symptoms - one main symptom of which, blood in his stools, he admitted to having but never got checked out.
He said: "I'm so grateful to the people on the show for bringing it to my attention. I check my stools all the time now. I'd urge others to do it, too."
While the cancer scare was clearly quite the ordeal to go through, it's clear that this EastEnder is doing better than ever after absolutely smashing Bushtucker Trial after Bushtucker Trial in the jungle this year.