Laura Hamilton, 38, is a firm favourite on the Channel 4 show A Place In The Sun. The property expert has since opened up about the moment she stepped out of the shower and noticed that she was covered in bruises.
The TV star admitted she had assumed the bruises may have come about due to a change in her diet and began to Google a possible diagnosis.
Laura, who is married to husband Alex Goward, revealed it occured after she had recently given birth to her daughter Thalia.
The couple share two children together; Rocco, five and Thalia, four.
“It was terrifying,” she explained. “I had been on quite a strict diet.
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“I’d cut out sugar and carbs and I was the slimmest I’d been. I was exercising loads and felt in really good shape.”
As the presenter agonised over the issue for days, she contacted her mother-in-law who urged Laura to visit a doctor after suspecting it could be a blood disorder.
“When Tahlia was about seven months old, I was due to drive to Portugal to film a fitness app, but a few days before I was due to go I started noticing all this bruising coming out on my legs,” she explains.
“At first I wondered if the bruises might have been caused by my diet. I was always someone who bruised quite easily anyway, but it was more than normal.”
“The doctor explained that when platelets drop below a certain point, you’re at risk of internal haemorrhaging and bleeding on the brain,” Laura said.
She was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), an autoimmune condition which causes the body to attack its own platelets.
Many people have no symptoms, but they can include a rash of tiny pinprick red dots – as well as easy bruising, bleeding gums and fatigue, according to the NHS.
Following Laura’s diagnosis, the presenter was due to start a course of steroids as a form of treatment.