Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has told how she has been given a shock diagnosis following a two-year health battle. The star, who took the title of the popular show in 2015, says she has been responsible for “burning the candle at both ends” but felt increasingly unwell.
Posting an emotional Instagram video to her followers she revealed she had been in and out of hospital over the past two years but had now been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases. She said she wouldn’t go into further details of what they were until she knew more about them herself she urged her fans to take care of their own health.
She said: “I cannot express enough the importance of taking care of yourself. I am the kind of person who burns the candle at both ends, takes care of everyone else’s needs but my own.
“I don’t take time out for myself. I don’t really know what that means or what that feels like. Not really.
“And when I do take time for myself, I feel incredibly guilty. And usually when I take doing things outside of the house or away from my family, it’s always because I’m doing something else but it’s nothing to do with my relaxation or my well-being.
“It’s always about just doing other things, running errands, helping, whatever I can do. And that might be outside the house and then I feel really guilty about that.
“So, yeah, my alone time, me time, keep my mind and body healthy time is very, very minimal. And that is really bad.
“And that’s something that I’ve been really thinking about this year, especially because I turned 40 and I’m kind of, I’m very aware that when you turn 40, you have to do that MOT at the doctors and they check everything out. But recently, mostly this year, but over the course of two years, I’ve been quite unwell. I’ve just been getting quite sick.
“And over the course of the two years, I’ve been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, which I’m not going to go into now. I will go into in the future when I know more about it and when I have a better handle on it and when I understand it a little bit better.”
She continued: “But till then, like I cannot express, like I cannot express the importance of listening to your body, of taking care of yourself. And like I said, ‘I’m the worst at that. I’m not very good at it at all and I will only ever take care of myself when my body’s in shutdown.”
She continued: “But till then, like I cannot express, like I cannot express the importance of listening to your body, of taking care of yourself. And like I said, ‘I’m the worst at that. I’m not very good at it at all and I will only ever take care of myself when my body’s in shutdown.
“And that’s not good for you. We need to take more care of ourselves. We need to take more time in our care and our well-being, mental and physical.
“So, yeah, I just wanted to come on here. And like it’s been a really kind of really tough year because of all the tests and trying to work stuff out and getting my head around things.
“But I feel like it’s really important to come out the other side and like really be grateful for and feel blessed that although, you know, it’d be great not to be sick, I’m here.
“And that’s really what matters is that I’m here and I need to do all the things that I can to positively impact myself mentally and physically. And that’s all I can really do.
“But I just think it’s really important that my takeaway from all of this, that I always have, is listen to your body. And I really want to come on here and share that with you guys, because I think we don’t say that to each other enough.
“And I certainly don’t. I think mums don’t say it to each other. I think women, mums just are not very good at it. And I know the mums that I know are not very good at it either.
“So take care of yourself. Listen to your body. Listen to your instincts and press push. If there’s something not right, press push. Make sure you get to the bottom of it.
“And I don’t think I would have got to the bottom of it if I hadn’t pressed and pushed because I could feel that there was something wrong.
“So press push and follow your instincts and know that what you’re feeling is not in your head – you’re probably very well right. So just trust your own instincts and take care of yourselves.”
Nadiya, 39, won the sixth series of Bake Off in 2015. She has since gone on to be one of the show’s most successful contestants hosting BBC shows The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya’s British Food Adventure and Nadiya’s Family Favourites. She co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.
She is also is a columnist for The Times Magazine, appeared as a guest panellist on ITV’s Loose Women and was invited to bake a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Elizabeth II.
In 2017, Hussain was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK. She was also on BBC News’ 100 Women list.