Brave Trisha Goddard reveals how she managed her incurable cancer treatment inside the Celebrity Big Brother house
TRISHA Goddard has opened up on how she lived with her incurable stage four cancer whilst in Celebrity Big Brother.
The talk show host, 67, became the first person to be living with the incurable disease inside the famous reality TV house.
Now, in her first interview since leaving the house, Trisha has revealed how she managed to cope in the famous house whilst battling her condition.
Trisha underwent a round of chemotherapy and flew to the UK from her home in Connecticut just 24 hours later to move into the CBB house.
Speaking about the process of making sure she was fit and well for the programme, she told the Mail Online: “I went to the infusion centre on April 1. I call it my spa room.
“I had a soupcon of chemo and targeted hormone therapy, one little bag after the other. I have a port catheter [in her chest] and I get plugged in.
“Then the next day I flew over to the UK. I had to wear compression garments – tights and a sleeve on my arm – and I took disinfectant wipes for the seats, tables, armrest and loo.
“My oncologist is brilliant, a rock star, and so sweet. He said, ‘I’m going to help you do this because your message [of hope] is so great.”’
Trisha then underwent an ultrasound scan upon touching down in England to ensure she was well and and to check that she had not developed a deep vein thrombosis.
In order to make her stay in CBB comfortable, Trisha was afforded a number of luxuries.
She originally thought she would be given a bed with a curtain in the main bedroom but was shocked to discover she had been given her own private suite.
Trisha told the Mail: “I thought I was going to get – ooh – a bed with a curtain but amazingly they decided I should have my own bedroom, loo and bathroom which I genuinely wasn’t expecting.
“I was blown away by that. And they gave me my own low-fat food in a little fridge.
“I missed out on not being in the main bedroom – I got a bit of FOMO.”
She also opened up on some of the medication she was taking during her stay in Britain’s most famous house.
Trisha added to the publication: “I had to take poo powder three times a day. It’s [constipation] one of the side-effects of chemo.
“I also had a prescribed dose of calcium, and so many people will say they’re tired with chemo. Not moi! I take Ritalin [a stimulant typically prescribed for ADHD].
“It stops exhaustion. This is what upsets me: there are so many people with cancer, so many suffering so much they can’t function, but side-effects can be treated.
“[For nausea] I do a super mild wibbly-wobbly workout with weights that helps my balance. The hospital doesn’t even need to give me anti-nausea meds.”
Trisha was evicted from the CBB house in the show’s second week.
The star also admitted she faced criticism for choosing to spend time in the CBB house – for which she was reportedly paid £200,000 – as opposed to being with family.
She said: “I had messages like, ‘You should be spending your dying days with your family, not in the Big Brother House’, and the assumption is that the cancer has spread all over your body: liver, kidney; everywhere.
“But for a hell of a lot of people with metastatic cancer – me included – it’s not the case.
‘It’s in my bone; specifically my right hip bone. And people have lived with cancer like this for five, ten even 20 years. You can’t be so scared of dying you become afraid of living.”