Adele Roberts’ first cancer symptom appeared on I’m A Celebrity ‘for all to see’
Adele Roberts was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021, but she was experiencing symptoms while on I’m A Celebrity two years before.
The Radio 1 DJ, 45, has opened up in her new autobiography – Personal Best: From Rock Bottom to the Top of the World – about how her cancer symptoms were there for the world to see when she appeared on the ITV show in 2019.
Looking back Adele sees her tiredness in the jungle – she was often the first campmate to call it a night – as a symptom of her bowel cancer.
The Dancing on Ice star, who announced she was cancer-free in June 2022, reflected on how campmates would laugh with her, saying: ‘You always look dead when you’re asleep.’
At the time, Adele thought she was suffering side effects of living in the jungle with limited food but she was actually ‘dying’, according to The Mirror, citing the star’s words in her memoir, released today.
‘I also used to find it very hard to stay awake once the sun had gone down. It was like my body would lose power with the light,’ she wrote.
Bowel cancer symptoms
Symptoms of bowel cancer could include:
- changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you
- needing to poo more or less often than usual for you
- blood in your poo, which may look red or black
- bleeding from your bottom
- often feeling like you need to poo, even if you’ve just been to the toilet
- tummy pain
- a lump in your tummy
- bloating
- losing weight without trying
- feeling very tired for no reason
The NHS advises to see your GP if you have symptoms for 3 weeks or more.
Adele remembered one evening she even forfeited the luxury of an evening meal because she was so cold, opting for the warmth of bed instead.
‘My campmates were so worried about me,’ she said, adding that back in the UK her partner Kate Holdness was also concerned there was ‘something wrong’.
‘I would never go to bed without having my tea. She rang one of the producers to say she was worried. They said I was just a bit cold and tried to put her mind at rest,’ Adele said.
However, Adele described how her loss of appetite continued, and while she couldn’t face food in the evening, she said the daytime eating challenges ‘saved my life’ as she wrote: ‘Thank god for the turkey testicles and camel toes.’
As Adele had ‘no appetite’ and food ‘hurt [her] tummy’ ITV show’s medic Dr Bob began to worry, so gave her nutrition shakes and weighed her regularly, but the weight loss continued.
Her tumour was discovered in September 2021, and her surgeon said it’d been growing for at least 10 years.
Adele underwent colostomy surgery and has since been living with a stoma bag which she has named Audrey.
‘I originally thought that the first signs of my cancer started to show a couple of years after I’m a Celeb,’ she said.
‘I was wrong. It was there for us all to see in the camp, but we didn’t know.’
Adele is ‘not blaming anyone’ – including Dr Bob, who didn’t have a colonoscopy machine in the jungle ‘or permission to touch my bum for that matter’ – butwished she was more aware about bowel cancer symptoms, so she could have recognised it earlier.
She added: ‘So just to reiterate: loss of appetite, a sore, bloated tummy, weight loss and fatigue. These are the classic symptoms of bowel cancer, and they were playing out on TV for all to see.’
The star also said she was grateful for being voted off the show first, as she reflected: ‘That might have saved my life too. I was dying and I didn’t know it.’
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Adele Roberts says she had bowel cancer while in the I’m A Celebrity jungle (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock) Adele Roberts was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021, but she was experiencing symptoms while on I’m A Celebrity two years before. The Radio 1 DJ, 45, has opened up in her new autobiography – Personal Best: From Rock…