Eating was so painful, I lost seven stone in just two months...
His superb singing has put him in the X Factor final. And, says ‘Voice of the Valleys’ Lloyd Macey, it’s also soothed the agony of his chronic gut disease
HE HAS already won the hearts of millions of X Factor viewers across Britain with his beaming smile and Welsh charm. But behind the curtain, would-be pop star Lloyd Macey – dubbed on social media as The Voice of the Valleys – is battling an incurable, chronic disease.
The 23-year-old, who has reached the live finals of this year’s competition, has told of his dramatic six-year battle with Crohn’s, a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system or gut.
Lloyd melted hearts at his first audition for the ITV singing contest – as did his Nanny Christine, who arrived with a Tupperware box of fishfinger sandwiches, and insisted on feeding them to Simon Cowell.
The singer then sailed through the ‘judges’ houses’ heat of the contest to win a place at the final in front of a live audience and 4.3 million TV viewers.
It is a remarkable achievement, given that four years ago the South Wales native was confined to a hospital ward and terrified after losing seven stone in just two months.
Lloyd was aged 18, 6ft 3in tall and weighed 19 stone and was halfway through his second year of studying Welsh at Cardiff University when, during a dinner with his flatmates, he started to suffer from stomach pains.
The culprit: a ‘dodgy’ spaghetti bolognese, which left them all with a nasty spell of food poisoning.
BUT while his fellow students were better within days, Lloyd was left in crippling pain, bloated and barely able to move. ‘I kept feeling worse and worse,’ he says when I meet him at the X Factor house in North London, where he has been living with the other finalists during the contest.
He says the most distressing symptom was severe constipation: ‘There was so much pain and bloating. My stomach felt so tight and I was barely able to eat anything because it was so painful.’
Lloyd soldiered on with his studies, attempting to quell the uncomfortable symptoms by surviving on ‘cups of tea and boiled eggs’.
‘My relationship with food became a bit weird,’ he tells me as he relaxes on the huge 12-seat sofa in the living room. ‘I was really scared of food. I thought everything I ate would make my pain worse and I didn’t trust my body. Food was the enemy.’
Two months later, the former rugby player was a weakened shadow of his former, cheerful self. ‘People didn’t recognise me,’ he says. ‘It was such a drastic change. I’d go out and I remember people saying to me, “Is that you Lloyd?!” ’
After six weeks of agony, Lloyd’s parents, Michelle and Darren, both 49, sought the help of consultants at
the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in South Wales. A barrage of tests confirmed he was suffering from Crohn’s disease. The illness results from an abnormality in the immune system, which causes an over-reaction to certain bacteria in the intestine. This response causes the digestive system to malfunction and results in inflammation of the entire gut – affecting every part of the system from mouth to anus. The cause of Crohn’s disease remains unknown, although it is thought to be genetic.
Colorectal surgeon Janindra Warusavitarne, of St Mark’s Hospital in London, says many Crohn’s sufferers can go through most of their childhood without experiencing any symptoms at all.
‘For most people, it’s a matter of waiting until their symptoms are severe enough that they want to seek help,’ he adds. ‘People lose weight, or have prolonged pain, or have infections in the rectal area. That’s when they tend to be diagnosed.’
Lloyd was just happy to know what was wrong. ‘We cheered when we found out I had Crohn’s. We were worried that it would be something a lot worse. But very quickly the excitement wore off and my parents and I thought: oh wait, now I have to deal with it.
‘I didn’t really know what Crohn’s was. But then I joined a Facebook Crohn’s support group and I read other people’s stories. I was so shocked to see
that Crohn’s and other bowel diseases affect so many.’
Lloyd was also faced with a stark reality: in severe cases, Crohn’s patients may need a temporary or permanent stoma – or port – and colostomy bag as the damage to the bowel can become so bad that normal elimination of waste is impossible.
Within six weeks of diagnosis, still in pain and digestive discomfort, and unable to eat, Lloyd was admitted to hospital. Even so, he remained characteristically upbeat. ‘I spent most of my time singing to all of the other patients,’ he says. ‘When I had to have the colonoscopies – a camera that looks at your insides – I’d just look at my stomach on the monitor. I thought it was pretty cool, to be honest.’
After two weeks and having reached a stable weight thanks to 300-calorie meal supplements, Lloyd returned home, with steroids to control his symptoms – which he continued to take for 18 months.
He recalls: ‘The first time I tried to eat proper food when I came out of hospital, I ate a tiny bit of steak, salad and sweet potato. I was scared that it would hurt, but I only ate a little bit slowly and it was fine.’
As the medication began to reduce his pain and bloating, the former performing arts student slowly increased his food repertoire.
Now, having come off his medication two years ago, Lloyd has found alternative methods of keeping his symptoms at bay – and singing is one of them.
‘My singing teacher back home taught me how to breathe deeply in order to access my voice, and I use that whenever I feel pain or irritation in my stomach.
‘Whenever I feel a flare-up coming on, I’ll sing – it really helps to control my breathing and ease the pain. Crohn’s is a blessing in disguise because my treatment has made me a better singer.’
Lloyd relies on the same technique to deal with stressful situations, such as singing in front of four million people and Simon Cowell. ‘I do breathing exercises before I go on stage and every night before bed,’ he says. ‘My stomach feels the benefit too and is less painful. Now, I never really get stressed.’
AFTER a year off, his performance on the rugby pitch was another pleasant surprise. He says: ‘I was stronger and had more energy.’
Rugby has taken a back seat recently due to his gruelling X Factor schedule. Instead, Lloyd keeps active using a combination of swimming, walking and t’ai chi. And he’s adamant that his weight won’t be creeping up again any time soon. ‘I hate looking at pictures of me when I was bigger,’ he says. ‘It makes me realise how unhealthy I was.’
While Lloyd’s friends struggle to resist a meat feast pizza, the singer is no longer even tempted. ‘The pain just isn’t worth it,’ he says.
Meals now feature oily fish salads and gluten-free pasta, made for him by the X Factor chef.
These days, flare-ups are ‘very rare’ and at a healthy weight of 14½ stone, Lloyd is free to focus on living out his wildest dreams as one of the 16 X Factor finalists.
Since Lloyd’s first audition, his parents have been working on the launch of their own Crohn’s and Alzheimer’s charity – in aid of both Lloyd and his late, paternal grandmother, who had the disease.
He says: ‘When millions of people know who you are, you’re in a position to help other people. I want Crohn’s sufferers to know that you can achieve anything you want to.
‘Yes, I have Crohn’s – but Crohn’s doesn’t have me.’ The X Factor continues tonight at 7.05pm on ITV.