I’M A Celebrity star Russell Watson is forced to take cocktail of drugs every day to stay alive.
Tonight the opera star, 54, became the eighth campmate to evicted from the show.
But what we didn’t see during his time in the castle, is that he relies on medication to keep him well, after suffering TWO brain tumours.
After battling a benign but aggressive tumour in 2006, Russell was diagnosed with his second pituitary tumour the following year.
The Brit opera star was told he would never sing again after a seven-hour op to remove the growth, which haemorrhaged in four places.
Following his time at the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle, Manchester, he remained in the hospital’s Intensive Therapy Unit and also underwent radiotherapy treatment at Christie Hospital.
Despite fears that his performing days could be gone forever, Russell went on to make a full recovery.
But he still relies heavily on meds to make sure he doesn’t get sick again,
“I still have to take specific medication every day, because my body doesn’t naturally produce hormones, so I have to inject them,” the star told Best magazine back in 2018.
“Initially it was a minefield, because I was taking this whole cocktail of drugs to stay alive. It used to get me down.
“I would get very depressed. I’d go to bed at night but wouldn’t be able to get to sleep – I’d panic because I thought I would die if I fell asleep.
“Nowadays, I feel as if each new day is a gift – that’s why I don’t look back anymore.”
He now has to inject himself as he continues his recovery.
The 54-year-old added: “When I wake up in the morning, I have to inject myself, and then after an hour I can get up.
“That’s my routine now, but I’ll never let that illness define me – I’ll never let it beat me.”
Russell also spoke about the meds he relies on, in an interview with The Mirror in 2014.
He said: “I wouldn’t last more than 24 hours without my medication.
“The second one was the ‘one’, the first wasn’t life-threatening, it was painful and I nearly lost my vision.
“The second one was holy s***, I went home, went to bed and didn’t wake up because of a haemorrhage.
“My assistant found me, called the paramedics and I knew I was in trouble because the paramedic kept saying ‘stay with us, stay with us’.”
