Sam Faiers says she's getting "stronger" due to her battle with Crohn's Disease.
The 23-year-old beauty was diagnosed with the inflammatory bowel disease last week, after experiencing severe pains while in the 'Celebrity Big Brother' house in January, and she reveals she may have been living with the ailment for a year and hopes she can now raise awareness for some of the symptoms.
Quizzed how her family and friends have reacted to her illness, she said: "They're really upset and really concerned and I feel like, with them being like that, it makes me want to be stronger and positive about it.
"Being a young girl and living a lifestyle like a lot of young girls do - like going out on the weekends - my doctor said by the looks of it, I've been living with this for a year. So I want to get the awareness out there that a lot of people can be living with it and not actually had a flare-up to go and get the tests you need."
'The Only Way is Essex' star is now on a liquid-only diet for six weeks in order to rest her bowel.
Appearing on ITV's 'This Morning' today (24.02.14), Sam said of her course of treatment: "I'm on tablets at the moment; I'm on two antibiotic and another drug which stops the inflammation. It's very ulcerated at the moment. And I'm on shakes ... I'm not eating anything for the next six weeks, so I'm on shakes that gives my body everything it needs."
Sam began feeling ill while in the 'Celebrity Big Brother' house and first realised the severity of her illness after losing lots of weight.
She recalled: "I was losing more and more weight. Naturally, I'm a curvy girl and I was training, so I had muscle. When I was in the shower I said to myself, 'Oh my god, this weight is falling off me' ... that's when I thought this can't just be a tummy bug.
"There was a couple of days in the house I couldn't even get myself out of bed, my whole body was aching, all my joints were aching."
Tagged in Sam Faiers