Strictly Come Dancing contestant Saffron Barker has revealed she was hospitalised with a suspected ‘tropical disease’.
The 24-year-old – who was the first female social media influencer to make it onto the BBC show in 2019 – posted a series of updates on her Instagram Stories on Thursday showing her skin covered in a red rash, an IV drip coming from her arm and bloody bruises where blood had been drawn by medics.
She said in a caption alongside an image of her lying in bed in pyjamas: ‘Thank you so much for all your well wishes, after a week I finally feel somewhat normal again.
‘The doctors thought I’d caught a tropical disease from a mosquito when I was away.
‘I had all the symptoms being, rashes all over my body, headache, body aches, shooting pains in my body, temperature, sore throat and ears etc.’
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In the next of three Instagram Story posts Saffron posted an image of a needle and drip hooked to her arm – and told fans she hadn’t contracted malaria.
She went on: ‘After getting my bloods taken turns out I didn’t have that but my white blood cells were half the number they should be so very low and therefore my whole body was trying to fight the infection.’
Against a shot of her arm covered in an angry rash, Saffron said: ‘This is what the rashes looked like all over my body.’
In a fourth post on her health scare she shared an image of her in the bath showing her arm with less of a rash.
She captioned it: ‘Today is the first day I have woken up and they are settling so feeling grateful.’
Saffron sought medical help earlier this year during a skiing holiday in January following a painful fall.
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