Jennifer Ellison has revealed the injuries she suffered while taking part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. The former Brookside star is among the 14 famous faces who were whisked off to the Jordanian desert to take part in one of the toughest SAS selection courses.
The Channel 4 show returns to screens on Sunday night (September 4) with Jennifer joined by the likes of former EastEnders actress Maisie Smith, ex-footballer and reality star Ashley Cain, TV personality Calum Best, and javelin Olympic gold medallist Fatima Whitbread for the new series.
They are amongst those brave enough to attempt to pass the notoriously difficult test but it's all for a good cause as they've signed up to help raise money and awareness for Channel 4's cancer initiative, Stand Up to Cancer, with Cancer Research UK.
Speaking about why she wanted to take part in the grueling show, Jennifer said: "I wanted to do it because I'd not done anything for so long. I've had this kind of break from what I grew up doing and love doing, and kind of lost my identity a little bit. So the opportunity came along and I just thought, 'I'm going to grab it with both hands and see I can still do my stuff'.
It was more of a challenge for me personally, to see if I could test myself and kind of remember who I am and the fire I used to have inside of me."
But if Jennifer's injuries she sustained while taking part are anything to go by, it was pretty brutal. The 39-year-old revealed she ended up in hospital when she broke two ribs, developed an infection in her lung and damaged her spleen. But the accident actually happened early on.
"After I jumped from a helicopter, I hit my ribs and then I could feel a pain in my side," she revealed. "When I got back to the UK it was getting worse, so I went to A&E. They told me, ‘You’ve got broken ribs, blood in your lung and a bleeding spleen’. The infection in my lung was really nasty.”
Jennifer, who played Emily Shadwick in Channel 4 soap Brookside, was kept in hospital for three days and given vital intravenous antibiotics so she wouldn’t need an operation, the Daily Star reports. She added: "It was really quite bad." And what followed was a painful recovery.
"It was really painful for a very long time. I was sitting in bed laid flat," she revealed. "I couldn’t take a deep breath, so I had to blow into a machine." Despite the physical pain, Jennifer is glad she did the show and has been full of praise for the series. "The reward was life-changing.
"It’s really given me a kick up the backside to sort myself out, so it was worth it for me." And that's because Jennifer is now a regular at the gym and has shed a whopping five stone.
Last month the blonde beauty showed off her incredible weight loss when posting a series of holiday snaps online. Jennifer took to Instagram with the photos as she enjoyed a family break in Turkey with her husband Rob and their three kids. In one image she donned a multicoloured bikini and told her followers the family was having the "best time".
She then shared another holiday pic from a swanky-looking bathroom as she posed for a selfie in the mirror.
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