‘Strictly Come Dancing’ contestant Saffron Barker rushed to hospital amid ‘tropical disease’ fear

‘Strictly Come Dancing’ contestant Saffron Barker was rushed to hospital amid fears she had been stricken with a “tropical disease”.

The 24-year-old, who was the first female social media influencer to make it onto the BBC show in 2019, posted a series of updates on her Instagram Stories on Thursday (03.10.24) showing her skin covered in a red rash, an IV drip coming from her arm and bloody bruises where blood had been drawn by medics.

She said in a caption alongside an image of her lying in bed in pyjama trousers: “Thank you so much for all your well wishes, after a week I finally feel somewhat normal again. The doctors thought I’d caught a tropical disease from a mosquito when I was away.

“I had all the symptoms being, rashes all over my body, headache, body aches, shooting pains in my body, temperature, sore throat and ears etc.”

In the next of three Instagram Story posts Saffron posted an image of a needle and drip hooked to her arm – and told fans she hadn’t contracted malaria.

She went on: “After getting my bloods taken turns out I didn’t have that but my white blood cells were half the number they should be so very low and therefore my whole body was trying to fight the infection.”

Against a shot of her arm covered in an angry rash, Saffron said: “This is what the rashes looked like all over my body.”

In a fourth post on her health scare she shared an image of her in the bath showing her arm with less of a rash.

She captioned it: “Today is the first day I have woken up and they are settling so feeling grateful.”

Saffron sook medical help earlier this year during a skiing holiday in January following a painful fall.

And in August, she defended herself when rumours began to swirl about her recent weight loss.

The YouTube star had travelled to the US in June to take a six-week acting course, and when she returned to the UK faced a flood of allegations over how skinny she looked.

She hit back in an online video: “I think it’s quite obvious that I’ve lost a lot of weight recently – well I say recently, but it’s been a gradual thing.

“My diet changed when I went to LA, for all the better. I don’t eat anywhere near as much sugar as I used to eat and I never felt so much better for it in my life.

“I’ve actually worked really hard, frickin’ hard.

“Apparently nowadays you can't lose weight without getting liposuction or being on Ozempic.

“It’s so frustrating, this is the only time I’m going to address it.”