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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Sam Elliott-Gibbs

Ricky Gervais feared he had cancer or been poisoned after suffering from 'worst' illness

Ricky Gervais' recent illness was so bad that he feared he may have cancer - and says he felt like he was about to die.

The Office star, 61, suffered from vomiting, sweats and chills after falling sick in what he called the worst experience of his life.

Things were so bad the comic even questioned whether he had been poisoned.

He went down with the horror mystery bug earlier this month after told his followers in very graphic detail all about it.

The self-proclaimed hypochondriac has opened up about the terrible eight hours and said things were so bad he wasn't sure if he was going to make it.

Ricky Gervais feared for his life after being struck down by a mystery bug (Getty Images)
He kept his fans up to date in graphic detail on twitter (@rickygervais / Twitter)

In a Q&A last night, one fan asked him to tell them more about his trauma and and the symptoms.

"It was like, "Ooh, what was that?" Then it happened again. My first thought was obviously – liver cancer, right?'" Ricky replied.

"I got another pain, and it was, "Oh, oh God." And I felt sick. And I went to throw up and couldn’t. So I thought, "Oh, maybe it’s stomach cancer."

"I mean, never mind the illness and thinking you’re going to die. I can’t breathe. I think I’m going to choke. And I think I’m not going to get my breath back in between each spasm.

"The next day, when I coughed, my ribs. I thought, oh, I’ve ripped my stomach lining here.

It was so bad he thought he could have cancer (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

"Then I thought, "Ah – coronavirus." I’ve had it before. I caught it off one of my nieces, or great nieces, one Christmas. Everyone was ill. And again, that happened in the middle of the night, and I thought, "Oh, Jesus".'

He went on: "That didn’t stop me thinking at one point it might have been radiation sickness.

"I just thought 'Well, it could be – you never know' - someone might have been walking behind me with a bit of plutonium, once."

Now fighting fit, the After Live star joked: "I mean, I couldn’t even face a beer until about 8 o’clock that night. Unbelievable. I don’t want that again, but you know it’s going to happen again.”

Ricky is on the mend but says it was the worst experience of his life (Getty Images)

Ricky saying he thought he was 'going to die' as he shared his affliction with his 15.1m followers on May 12.

He didn't hold back, writing: "I'm not well today. In fact I'd say I just lived through the worst 8 hours of illness of my life.

"Severe abdominal pains, vomiting every time I moved, (but only tiny bits of bile), hot sweats and chills, oh, and I really want to know who planted the 12 gravy bombs up my a**e."

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