Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson opens up about chronic UTI on Channel 4's Leeds-based Steph’s Packed Lunch

Reality television personality Marnie Simpson has opened up about living with severe pain caused by a chronic urinary tract infection (UTI).
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On today's broadcast of Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4, which is filmed in Leeds, the Geordie Shore and Geordie OG star spoke with Dr Javid Abdelmoneim.

She said: “When I’ve been at my lowest, I’ve just thought there’s no point in even going on.

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"There’s nothing more scary than being in a situation like this where you’re really ill, it’s restricting every aspect of your life, you’re in so much pain and no doctor can help you. I get anxiety, it affects my work life.”

Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson talks to Dr Javid Abdelmoneim on Steph's Packed Lunch. Picture: C4.Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson talks to Dr Javid Abdelmoneim on Steph's Packed Lunch. Picture: C4.
Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson talks to Dr Javid Abdelmoneim on Steph's Packed Lunch. Picture: C4.

Ms Simpson described how she was aware of her painful bladder while being interviewed.

She said: “I can feel my bladder, yeah. I’ve got bladder awareness. [I have] an irritated burning feeling. It’s like a four out of 10 and when it’s really bad it will go to 10 out of 10 and that’s when I’m bedbound.”

Mother to 11-month-old Rox, Ms Simpson also told Dr Abdelmoneim she does not know if she will have any more children as a result of her condition.

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She said: “I want to have more kids, I don’t know if that will ever happen. I can’t. I think there’s only one thing worse than being in this pain and it’s being in this pain pregnant because the amount of stress you put your body through with a baby, I wouldn’t be able to.”

Ms Simpson said she has struggled with the UTI for years. Picture: C4.Ms Simpson said she has struggled with the UTI for years. Picture: C4.
Ms Simpson said she has struggled with the UTI for years. Picture: C4.

Ms Simpson has been living with a chronic UTI for the past four years.

She said: “I’ve always suffered on and off with UTIs my whole life and then in 2016 I got one, and I took antibiotics and this time it just didn’t go. I was going to loads of doctors, I was getting loads of checks and they were checking my urine, they were saying there’s nothing there, it’s fine.”

Dr Cat Anderson, a specialist in women’s health and recurrent UTIs, told Ms Simpson Marnie and Dr Abdelmoneim: “Some studies have shown the quality of life impact of having this disease is equivalent to crippling rheumatoid arthritis, terminal cancer or end-stage renal failure. That’s quite a shocker.”

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Asked why so many diagnoses are being missed, Dr Anderson said: “You’ve got to ask yourself, is it something to do with it being women’s health…?”

Ms Simpson added: “It’s frustrating because if I’d been treated properly in the beginning, I wouldn’t be in this position now.”

She was speaking as part of a recurring strand on Steph’s Packed Lunch, ‘Celebrity Surgery’, in which the show’s resident doctors help patients who are known to the public in their quest for better health.

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