Charlie back from Rio after malaria ordeal

TELEVISON PRESENTER Charlie Webster is back in Yorkshire after being taken seriously ill in Brazil.

She contracted malaria during the Olympic Games after she cycled 3,000 miles for the Ride to Rio challenge in memory of Leeds woman Jane Tomlinson.

Ms Webster, 33, originally from Sheffield, was flown into Leeds-Bradford Airport yesterday by specialist medical plane and taken to St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

A spokesman for Ms Webster said: “She was accompanied on the chartered plane by a team of medical professionals who continued her care, alongside her mum, who has been at her Rio bedside.”

Her condition remains stable but serious. She will continue her recovery and treatment in a private ward at the hospital.

Ms Webster cycled to Rio de Janeiro from London, through France, Spain and Portugal. She flew to the north of Brazil, and then cycled to Rio de Janeiro. The trip took six weeks.

Ms Webster is a Team GB Ambassador and attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

She was due to be presenting coverage from the Team GB house for Team GB online and for various broadcasters.

She attended the opening ceremony on Friday, August 5, but then fell ill. She thought it was dehydration and general fatigue from the cycle ride.

In the early hours of Saturday, August 6, Ms Webster went to hospital and was treated for dehydration.

Over the next few days, her condition deteriorated; her kidneys stopped functioning and she was put on dialysis.

On Friday, August 12, she was put into a medically-induced coma. Medics are trying to calculate where she may have caught a rare strain of malaria.