Sports presenter Charlie Webster has said she is “still surviving” as she shared a photograph of herself on life support two years after she was in a medically induced coma.
The TV star and Team GB ambassador, 35, contracted a rare form of malaria while in Rio for the 2016 Olympics after taking part in a 3,000-mile charity cycle ride to the Brazilian city.
She became unwell during the opening ceremony of the Games.
She shared a photograph of herself lying in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors with tubes going in and out of her mouth, and wrote: “2 years ago this was me… I was in a coma on life support.
“I had less than 24 hours to live, it was unlikely I’d survive the night. They told my mum I was likely brain damaged.
Read more: Charlie Webster speaks about horrifying malaria battle
“This time last year I was still struggling with my physical health & very much so my mental health.
“I could hear when I was in the coma, it was incredibly distressing, I was also told I was dying when I was still conscious. It was like torture trapped inside.”
She added: “Today feels weird, hard to describe, it floods back memories of the pain and also the heartbreak of my mum and brothers but I have a big smile on my face that I survived and I’m still surviving
“We have been through crap as we all have – we can sit here though and say ‘I survived that’. I made a decision to make sure I learn from everything that has happened to me and be a better person for it.
“It may not seem it at the time but we are incredibly resilient and are blessed with an amazing spirit of fight and survival.
“All this crap that happens to us just makes us stronger, gives us a deeper understanding and empathy and more able to help others pull through bad times.
“Basically keep on going! You can do it! I know it’s easy to say but through deep pain we honestly learn so much about ourselves and how remarkable we as humans are.”
Charlie previously said she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to experiencing the horrors of her life-threatening illness.
Now an ambassador for Malaria No More UK, she said her research and campaigning have helped her come to terms with what happened to her.
Appearing on ITV’s Loose Women last year, Charlie recounted how she knew something was wrong as she didn’t feel right after her charity cycle.
“Normally I’m quite a bubbly, energetic and really buoyant person, and then I started to get the worst stomach pains and then I went to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic games, I went into the toilet and I was being sick and I was bleeding out of my mouth.
“I was haemorrhaging and then I started to not be able to breathe very well.”
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