A Place In The Sun’s presenter Laura Hamilton has candidly discussed her fight against a rare blood disorder.
The 42-year-old Channel 4 host is battling immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), a condition that causes excessive bruising and bleeding, but has managed to conceal her illness from many viewers throughout her time on the travel programme.
Despite the challenges posed by ITP, a disorder that leads to increased bruising and bleeding risk, Laura has persevered with her hosting role since 2012 and even launched her own podcast named the Mile Fly Club, Coventry Live reports.
During an exclusive Facebook Live chat with the Daily Star, she shared insights into her health journey. Opening up about her condition, she told the publication: “I have something called ITP, Immune thrombocytopenia, which is low platelets count in my blood its quite an unknown disease.”
Discussing how stress can impact her condition, she added: “It sort of flares ups and downs depending on what’s going on with my life and stress often brings it out.”
Recounting a moment during filming, Laura said: “It was really mad a year ago I was filming A Place In The Sun with a lovely couple in France – Mark and Janine – and I just stood there and I had an insect bite on my leg and I started scratching it.”
Reflecting on her awareness campaign, she continued: “I was like ‘oh I shouldn’t have done that because I’m gonna have bruises on my leg from ITP.'”
Unexpectedly, her struggle resonated with someone she met during filming: “Mark stopped and was like ‘how do you know what ITP is?'”
He then shared a personal connection with the condition, as she explained: “And he told me that really sadly his sister had died from ITP and he said it was really good how I was trying to raise awareness of it. It’s one of them times where you think they could have been paired with anybody as a presenter and nobody knew about the ITP link so it was just like ‘wow’.”
The presenter added: “But that’s kind of under control at the moment I don’t have bruising quite like that on my legs but it does happen it does flare up but I’m always trying to be positive about things and be a glass half-full.”
In addition, Laura’s A Place In The Sun’s co-star Jean Johansson has also experienced her own health concerns. She has been diagnosed with presbyopia, an age-related condition that impairs the ability to focus on close objects.
For a long time, Jean ignored the signs of deteriorating vision but at the age of 42, she had to confront the truth when an optician’s test confirmed her fears. Jean shared her ordeal and noted a significant improvement after getting glasses: “I can honestly say it’s been life-changing.”
Talking about her hesitance to get her eyes checked, Jean admitted: “I’m not entirely sure why it took me so long to admit I needed glasses,” suspecting it was due to not wanting to face getting older. Now, however, she accepts it as a natural aspect of ageing.
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