TV star Melanie Sykes has shared a heartbreaking update with fans, revealing she is now 'two-thirds bald' and in 'so much pain' due to an autoimmune condition. The 55-year-old presenter, known for Today With Des and Mel and the Boddington's beer ads, posted a video on Instagram wearing a hat and scarf, explaining she has been 'ill all year'.
In the video captioned 'It's been a while', Sykes said: 'I am not well, as you know. I've been ill all year. I've got an auto-immune condition, I'm losing my hair, I keep having crazy inflammation all over everything, and I am working on healing.' She added that she had been unable to complete a meditation teacher training course due to her illness.
Sykes told her 300,000 followers: 'I'm in so much pain. Honestly, my lips and my eyes are just so bad, but I wanted to say hello. You'll see I'm two-thirds bald really. Every time I say I'm bald, I laugh. I don't know why. Thank God I can laugh. Always laugh.'
The TV star, who rose to fame in the 1990s on The Big Breakfast, also appeared on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2014, finishing in third place. Autoimmune conditions, which affect around one in 10 people, occur when the immune system attacks healthy parts of the body. There are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
