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'X Factor' star Christopher Maloney reveals he caught a parasite from a takeaway and almost died

X Factor contestant Christopher Maloney arriving for the premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 at the Empire and Odeon Leicester Square, London   (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)
X Factor contestant Christopher Maloney arriving for the premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 at the Empire and Odeon Leicester Square, London (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)

Former X Factor star Christopher Maloney has revealed he almost died after catching a severe bacterial infection from a Chinese takeaway.

The singer, who appeared on the ITV show back in 2012, spent almost two weeks in hospital when his organs began to shut down due to contracting Campylobacter and Escherichia coli (E. coli).

“They were going to remove my colon and put me on a colostomy bag. I honestly nearly died,” he told the Mirror Online, noting that the horrifying ordeal took place while he was performing in a pantomime production of Cinderella at the Bradford Playhouse in 2016.

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"I ended up only eating the crispy duck and pancakes at about 7 o'clock,” the 42-year-old recalled. "Then around 12:30am that was it, everything went downhill. I was literally on the floor and in the toilet. I was ill, it was just horrendous.”

Maloney also remembers having a fever and suffering from hallucinations because he was so sleep deprived. Yet, somehow, he managed to finish a run of shows between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, as well as sold-out concert in Manchester before collapsing and seeking medical attention when his mother rang for an ambulance and it whisked him off to Liverpool's Aintree University Hospital.

“I managed to do the shows but I had jelly legs. The audience didn't know but I didn't want to let the people down who had bought tickets.”

The ex-Celebrity Big Brother contestant said that the parasite had embedded itself so deeply into his large intestine that he was left with inflammatory colitis, which will need to be monitored for the rest of his life.

He also confirmed that it will be about 12 months until he feels back to normal.

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"The doctors said to me that I've got a really good immune system, but if it had happened to someone who was older or who didn't have as good an immune system, they would have died."

Now, Maloney wants to encourage people to think about where they eat and look at star-ratings and online reviews of food establishments that they intend to use before purchasing any of its produce.