I’m using my Love Island fame to save lives
Reality star opens up to Amy Packer about chronic lung condition that inspired her to become a doctor
LOVE Island contestant Priya Gopaldas, a 24-year-old trainee doctor, isn’t your typical reality TV star. Priya is not using her fledgling fame simply to build a personal brand. Instead, she wants to raise awareness of a condition she has been living with since her teens.
“Being on Love Island has given me a platform and I want to use that constructively,” says Priya, who has never spoken publicly about her own health struggles.
Her issues began when she was just 14, after being hospitalised with pneumonia, which caused irreparable lung damage.
“I had this dreadful cough for about 18 months afterwards and I kept bringing up so much phlegm,” says Priya. “I was backwards and forwards to the doctor and was told three or four times I had asthma. But the inhalers I was prescribed didn’t make any difference to my breathing.”
It was only after a CT scan at 15 that Priya was diagnosed with non-CF bronchiectasis. It is a chronic lung condition that affects 200,000 people in the UK according to the latest statistics from the British Lung Foundation (BLF).
It occurs when the main airways (bronchi) are damaged by severe infection, asthma or COPD and become inflamed by thick mucus which is difficult to clear.
This mucus can then get trapped and become infected. And when this happens, someone might experience a flare-up, which normally occurs as a chest infection.
Priya manages her condition well through diet and exercise.
She eats fresh fruit and veg every day to help ward off potential infections and also runs 10-20km five times a week.
“Running has been a game-changer,” says Priya, who is training for an ultramarathon in Sri Lanka next year. “If I don’t run for a couple of days, I start to feel my chest getting tight and mucus building up.”
She will also be running on behalf of the BLF at the Brighton Marathon in April.
Covid has forced her to become far more open about her condition.
“When you’re working on a ward full of anxious patients, you simply have to explain why you’re coughing,” says Priya, who is training at University College Hospital in London.
Despite being identified as clinically vulnerable, Priya is treating patients with Covid.
“I am very proactive about my illness and manage it really well, so it felt like my duty to help other people who were struggling with their breathing,” says Priya, who decided to become a doctor after her bronchiectasis diagnosis.
“Because I look well and run marathons, my condition can be invisible, but bronchiectasis has a huge impact on my life.
“Living through a pandemic has made us all more aware of our respiratory health – it’s definitely time to talk about how we should look after our lungs.”
■ Visit The British Lung Foundation (blf.org.uk; 03000 030 555).