Love Island star Demi Jones has said that she had received some nasty comments online over her thyroid cancer, with some nasty trolls even suggesting that she was lying about her diagnosis for attention.
Joining Susanna Reid and Bill Turnbull on Good Morning Britain, Demi opened up about being diagnosed with cancer in April.
The reality TV star, 22, first opened up to fans about her diagnosis earlier this month on Instagram, leaving her fans utterly stunned.
"It's been a hard thing to process," she told the hosts. "But I'm OK, that's the main thing."
Demi had originally been due to be seen in September about the lump on her neck, but due to the pandemic was delayed seven months she was only seen in April.
However, her scan came as all clear but Demi wasn't convinced and pushed for the fluid to be tested - which was found to be cancerous.
"Apparently thyroid cancer is really slow growing," she explained. "My doctor reckons that I've had this for years and years and had no idea.
"I've had this lump since 2019 since I noticed it but hadn't come out. So it's probably been underlying for years and years."
Opening up about the reaction online, she said: "I'm really lucky in that I haven't experienced a lot of trolling. I've been really lucky coming out of the villa. But there is still people like that...
"Even with my cancer, there were still nasty comments and things like that."
Stunned, Bill exclaimed: "Really?!"
Demi responded: "Saying, 'Oh, she's lying, she's that'. And I just woke up and looked at Instagram and thought, 'That's ridiculous.'
"Unfortunately there are people out there like that."
Astounded, Susanna replied: "For people to say that you're lying about your cancer - how do you respond to that?"
"I never respond to anything," Demi replied. "I never respond to trolling on social media, it's not worth my time. I'me really strong about it anyway. I've always been like that.
"But it makes me sad - I'm not lying about this at all. It's a really serious thing - I don't want to be going through this."
However, Demi said that she had had the "most amazing amount of support" in general.
"I had more messages when I had my surgery than when I came out of the villa," she said. "So many young girls have been messaging me saying they've booked appointments and they've chased up appointments because of me as well.
"So I thought, if I could just save one person's life or get young girls to check for lumps, regardless of your age, then that's just amazing to me."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
