Michaela Strachan told the Loose Women panel all about her gruesome experience of living with a worm under her skin for six months after she digested animal faeces while working

Michaela Strachan had a live worm living inside her for six months after she ate animal poo by mistake.

Appearing on Loose Women this afternoon, the wildlife presenter, 58, told the eye-watering story and left the panel reeling in horror after detailing how she swallowed faeces while she was eating her lunch. The nature lover – who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 – has faced other health battles, too.

Viewers were left squirming as Michaela told them: “People are going to think this story is awful. I was doing a lot of work in zoos at the time and I didn’t wash my hands properly and then at a sandwich. It was from animal faeces that I ended up getting a worm inside me, and under my skin.

“You could see it. I would itch and then you could see this worm moving under my skin. I got quite attached to this worm – literally! I gave him a name, William the Worm. And it he still there six months later. It didn’t impact me in any way. It wasn’t intestinal Eventually I had to end the love affair by taking double dosage of worm tablets. Most of the time you wouldn’t know he was there but when I itched he would come up the surface to say hello.”

Michaela Strachan told the Loose Women panel about living with a worm inside her (
Image:
ITV)

Really Wild Show star Michaela says she lost a friend to cancer last year and after her own fight she says the thought of turning 60 really doesn’t bother her. She added: “I’m very much into celebrating my birthdays now. Instead looking at those lines and hating them, know they’re a part of your story.”

Opening up on “year from hell”, Michaela told Mirror and other press how she lost her sister-in-law to cancer, her partner Nick’s best friend had a heart attack, one of her friends lost her son at 35 and then one of her closest friends died. Michaela and former Springwatch producer Lucy Bowden grew close when Lucy was diagnosed with breast cancer two years after Michaela, who had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in 2014.

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They squirmed when she told them how it happened (
Image:
ITV)
Speaking about her experience filming Pilgrimage, Michaela explained: “There were times when I wanted my own space and that came as a surprise to me because I’m usually somebody who is part of a group. But I was very much on the outside. As well as my best friend, there was a lot of other losses last year, it was heartbreaking.

“And just before Pilgrimage was my best friend’s funeral. She had breast cancer, the same diagnosis that I had, which was very poignant. I held her hand through her journey and went on Pilgrimage at a time where I was processing. It was a very similar diagnosis to mine, she was just unlucky. And it wasn’t just her, there was a string of people in my close circle who died.

“And so when I was doing it, it was difficult because when you’re grieving, you’d rather be with people that know you. Then you share the grief and when you’re with very, very big characters, you feel alone. But then I thought, ‘This has given me two weeks to process my emotions and this heartbreaking year that I’ve been through.”

Loose Women airs on ITV1 weekdays at 12.30pm