A FIRST Dates hopeful has revealed his nightmare ordeal that saw his audition for the hit dating show turn into a hospital stay.
35 year old Tom Maher told how he sat through the pain of a burst gall bladder in order to successfully complete his audition for the hit Channel 4 show.
Tom reveals his First Dates experience almost ended in disaster
Eventually, Tom got to date Regina on the show
He revealed that he was so determined to make it through that by the end of his chat with show bosses he was left requiring hospital treatment.
Tom told the Sunday World: “I ended up getting ill as my gall bladder burst during the audition in Dublin and I got poisoned.
“I was there at that stage and I said I’d better do it now and that was it. The next day I ended up in the hospital in Tullamore, where I was in intensive care and had to have emergency surgery.
“It took me a long time to get right because I had pneumonia as well. So, the whole lot hit me at once and let me down.”
His hospital stay initially put a hold on his dating journey as he was forced to recover from the operation.
But it all worked out well for Tom and his hopes of getting on the dating favourite as he revealed that after taking a few months off to recover from his surgery, he went onto enjoy a date with 30 year old Regina.
Dishing more on his exciting, Irish born Tom also revealed his numerous celebrity connections after running a gay bar in London at the age of 23.
After becoming pals with its licensee, he asked if Tom wanted to take the bar on despite him only being very young and having limited experience.
Recalling his time at the star-studded bar, Tom said: “Cilla Black, Paul O’Grady, Graham Norton, Brian Dowling used to come in. Half of them I wouldn’t recognise.”
“I had a pub in Ilford at the same time, but there was a lot of conditions on the license and stuff like that. It ran out of steam after a couple of years and the place is now converted into a block of flats.”
