Emmerdale’s Chelsea Halfpenny has detailed her ‘devastating’ eight-year battle with incurable Crohn’s disease.
The star, 30, – who played Amy Wyatt on the ITV soap – was first diagnosed when she in her early 20s which she says was ‘incredibly lonely’.
Chelsea suffers from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis which together are known as inflammatory bowel disease or IBD.
Crohn’s Disease is a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system which leads to recurring diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramping.
The autoimmune conditions cannot be cured and therefore sufferers have to manage symptoms with medication, diet and sometimes bowel surgery.
She wrote on Instagram on Wednesday: ‘I left [the doctor] worried and confused with a pamphlet full of information about a condition I’d never even heard of before,’ she recalled of her diagnosis.
‘It felt like a devastating blow – a ‘lifelong incurable illness’ was an extremely scary concept at my age and, considering none of my friends had heard of it, left me feeling incredibly lonely.’
She went on to explain that she was able to ‘manage her symptoms’ in a way that didn’t affect her day-to-day life, but she was still ‘fighting every day’.
