33-year-old Love Island All Stars winner made an interview with This Morning about the potentially life-threatening condition.
Gabby Allen has lifted the lid on a frightening health ordeal she faced during her childhood years. The Love Island All Stars winner, 33, said doctors even feared she’d never walk again amid the potentially debilitating diagnosis.
“I was around 11 or 12 years old,” she told presenters on ITV’s This Morning. “I was actually on holiday and my dad was teaching me how to dive, and my mum was like, ‘Wait a minute, she’s a bit wonky.’ And then, straight away when we got home, they took me to the doctors.”
Soon after receiving her diagnosis, Gabby was discovered to have scoliosis, a condition that causes spine twists or curves. Other symptoms include uneven shoulders, uncomfortable clothing, and a rib or hip protruding on one side, though this may only be obvious on the outside.
According to the NHS, scoliosis can occur in children between the ages of 10 and 15 but can also affect people between the ages of 10 and 15. Although treatment is not always required, Gabby was quickly advised to have surgery because her condition was rapidly progressing.
And because it was expanding so quickly, Gabby continued, to which presenter Rochelle Humes remarked, “You once thought, or you were told, that you might not ever walk again… That is quite something to hear.”
The scariest thing for me, in her opinion, was that I would never dance again, Gabby responded. Because I wanted to do that, I was told, “I need to be able to dance no matter what I do.
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“So, I wasn’t given a lot of information before entering; obviously, my parents didn’t want to scare me,” I suppose. I had a 10-hour procedure, which was exactly what I had, and they drained my entire spine from top to bottom.
Rods, nuts, bolts, and everything else are inside my entire spine. And you must also agree to a waiver that, as you may well know, there is a chance you won’t be able to walk once more.
Although I did need to retrain my walking, I was dancing in six months. Nine months later, I won ballet competitions. I believe that, along with strength training, helped me become as resilient as I am right now.
After going through a lot of self-destructive behavior, Gabby has previously mentioned that taking a personal training course was her “turning point” in life. Sadly, her father passed away just two weeks before her 21st birthday, which is unfortunate.
According to the Mirror, she wrote in a 2024 Instagram post: “I used to go through a cycle of binge eating and starving. I used to obsessively count and allow myself very low calories, then get so hungry I’d binge on SH***.
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“I once had to follow fad diets like juice plus before bingeing.” I used to go out and consume four bottles of wine before returning home, have a fry-up the following day, and not move a muscle. I lacked structure, motivation, discipline, and drive, and I was miserable.
Source: Mirror
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