Eamonn Holmes has told how he could have been blind after being struck down with shingles - and revealed he believes the stress being investigated for allegedly not paying his correct taxes was what brought the illness on. The GB News presenter is being ordered to pay an unexpected £250,000 tax bill following a 2020 court ruling.
It followed a tribunal which found that despite him arguing that he was freelance whilst on This Morning, he still counted as an ITV employee for tax purposes. He is now appealing against the ruling, and said the hearing was 'the most stressful experience outside of losing my father'.
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He said: "I was like a lamb to the slaughter – it was the most stressful, humiliating experience.” He was left unable to work and believes that the stress of the tax case was what sparked shingles.
Eamonn, 63, said that the virus hit him so hard it looked "as if someone had taken a baseball bat to my face". His shingles attack came on in 2018, just two weeks before his eldest son Declan's wedding.
Describing the illness he said: “It was bloody scary to see it. It looked as if someone had taken a baseball bat to my face and smashed me about a bit.”
He went on: “Blindness could have been a complication in my case. The doctor said it’s really bad for you because it’s around your eyes, and could be bad for your ophthalmic nerves. Medically, it was pretty serious.
He's teamed up with Strictly Come Dancing star James Jordan and the pair are running a campaign about the illness ahead of Shingles Awareness Week. Shingles is an infection of the nerves caused by a virus.
It first appears as a painful rash or small blisters on the skin and can appear anywhere on the body. After the rash has gone, the pain can continue for months or even years.
They both believe that they were struck down with the virus after they were run down. Jordan was struck down when he was on holiday last October when he spotted the sores on his tummy.
He thought it was sunburn at first, but quickly learned that he'd actually developed shingles. For Jordan, he believes that it was the death of his dad that caused him to suffer from the illness.
Eamonn, who has urged anyone with symptoms to get checked immediately, says that he and Jordan have become "good mates", and joked that they have a "bit of a bromance."
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