Reality star and presenter Vicky Pattison has joked that having assistance to burst a pus-filled boil in her crotch during a gruelling charity challenge is a new 'personal low'. The 38-year-old shared the gruesome update on radio after being forced to get a boil medically popped on her 'noon' – a moment that was also captured in vivid auditory detail from behind the door on her Instagram.
Day three of the Tyne to Thames Challenge
Vicky, who is on day three of her Tyne to Thames Challenge for Global's Make Some Noise, is travelling 250 miles from her home city of Newcastle to London this week, cycling and running along the way. Catching up on the radio with Heart presenter Pandora Christie about what she had been through, Vicky made sure she spared no grisly detail – the same as with previous wince-inducing injuries – calling it 'so bad'.
Recalling her day so far, Vicky said: 'I finished my 5k this morning and I felt like my crotch was really sore. I've heard loads about saddle sores, and I was just thinking "Oh, I still have three days to go".'
Medic forced to pop the boil
'Anyway, I went to the toilet and discovered I had a huge, saddle-sore boil thing on the side of me groin – oh my god mate, I've never felt so repulsed by myself!' Adding to her embarrassment, she revealed that her discomfort meant she'd needed to enlist help from her medic, who was forced to get up close and personal.
'I had to get my lovely medic to go and get – she had to pop it mate, basically. Face to noon! She had to pop it with a big needle.' The moment was also captured and posted online, with Vicky sat just out of sight as she whimpered, 'I'm really not going to like this, am I', while nervously eyeing up 'the big spike' with which she was about to be jabbed.
Pus everywhere and a 'new low'
When an agog Pandora asked if it hurt, Vicky cried: 'Of course it hurt! Do you want a needle next to yours?!' But radio host Pandora wasn't finished yet either, pressing further as she continued: 'I hate to be pretty graphic here, but does juice come out?'
'Babe. It was disgusting. It was awful, there was pus everywhere and Halloween's not for a couple of weeks, man,' Vicky quipped. 'It was honestly so grim, I was actually terrified. She had to antiseptic it, bandage it all up. My poor noon has been in the wars!'
She told her 5.4 million followers afterwards: 'Just when I think I can't sink any lower, I find a saddle sore ingrown hair thing on my noon, right where the bike's been chafing!' Vicky also joked that while she'd made a new pal in the medic who popped it, it also felt 'like a new low for me and my noon – and I've had some horrible exes!'.
Hers is not the only injury in a very intimate place to make headlines either, as Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins participant Lucy Spraggan managed to rip her labia on the harness during a stunt so severely in the 2025 series that she underwent reconstructive surgery.
Reality TV duty
The Geordie Shore star, who has also competed in Celebrity SAS and other reality shows including Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – which she won – has also spoken about the 'incredibly dark and tragic things' that can come from reality TV, while at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August.
'It doesn't matter how many years ago it's been since I was doing that sort of heavily constructed reality TV. Talking about my experiences and knowing that it is actually the present, the current, that the reality for a lot of young people going in these shows, even now, it's very sobering, and I do get quite emotional and upset,' she told Metro.
Vicky has made it a duty of hers to try and ensure people who take part in reality shows are protected. 'I've had loads of therapy, I've done all the work on myself, removed myself from situations that didn't serve me, people that I knew weren't good for my mental health. I've had the therapy, I've had the counselling, but ultimately there are some things that, when you think about what you went through or who you let yourself become, they'll always make us emotional. I'm human like that.'
