
Dean Gaffney has said there is ‘no doubt’ the reality show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! saved his life after medical checks found signs of bowel cancer.
The former EastEnders actor, 45, first appeared in the jungle in 2006 before returning for the all-stars version of the show in the South African bush which aired on ITV this month, where he narrowly missed out on a place in the final alongside Helen Flanagan.
Doctors checked Gaffney in 2020 ahead of a prospective appearance on the programme during Covid at Gwrych Castle in North Wales and discovered a number of polyps in his big intestine that required emergency surgery, according to Gaffney.
‘I’m A Celeb and its medical team saved my life without a doubt. I may not be here today if they hadn’t discovered what they did,’ he said.
The grandfather-of-two was one of 12 players on standby to replace any campmate who caught Covid in 2020, and he recalls being summoned for a physical in October after gaining his spot as a standby.
‘I thought nothing of it and did the routine blood tests. When it came back, it showed I was losing blood.


‘They thought it might be anaemia or an iron deficiency. I thought they were being a bit over the top,’ he confessed to The Mirror.
‘Later that day the results showed they had found polyps which were massive. One was huge. I think 20mm, which is big for a polyp.’
Following the procedure, Gaffney stated that the physicians were’slightly irritated,’ questioning why he had not spotted blood in his stool.
The physicians apparently warned him that if he hadn’t been examined by them when he was, he may have had colon cancer in three years.
They also emphasised that the TV star was ‘very lucky’.
The actress now aims to follow in the footsteps of Dame Deborah James, a BowelBabe fundraiser who died in June of last year at the age of 40, and increase awareness of the condition.
Gaffney described her efforts as “an inspiration to so many” and stated that if he could “do a small fraction of that for men, it’d make me very happy.”
I’m a Star… Myleene Klass eventually won South Africa in scenes shown on Friday night.
She won for the first time 17 years after becoming runner-up on the competition, defeating former Olympic javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread, Diversity dancer and Kiss FM broadcaster Jordan Banjo, and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell.