Made in Chelsea fans were devastated to discover one of the stars of the show, Sam Vanderpump, is suffering from end-stage liver disease.
Sam was filmed breaking the news to two of his closest friends on the show, Ollie Locke and Tabitha Willett, in scenes which were filmed eight weeks ago.
Viewers were sobbing over his bravery, while Ollie and Tabitha were heartbroken for their friend, too.
Sam, who is the nephew of Vanderpump Rules star Lisa Vanderpump, was given his prognosis just days before filming, after his shock hospitalisation last year.
Ollie and friends have sworn to rally round the star and his pregnant fiancée, Alice Yaxley.
Now Ollie has shared an update about how Sam is doing, after he previously thought he was just unwell with the flu or had taken too many painkillers.
Ollie cried when Sam told him the news, in scenes filmed for Made In Chelsea (Channel 4)
He told the Daily Mail: “I think he’s all right. It’s very complicated. It’s a very difficult situation.”
“He’s just getting his head around everything, but I think having lots of people share their stories is giving him solace as well and something that is imperative, I think, because he puts this out for other people as well as himself, and to raise awareness,” added the reality star, explaining there will be a fundraiser for organ donation charities.
He praised his friend and co-star Sam for raising awareness: ‘When we spoke about it and stuff like that, since that’s happened, I think there’s been tens of thousands of people sign up for organ donation, which is great.”
“If we can save a couple of people’s lives in the next however long, well, you can f***ing say whatever you want about reality TV in all your life,” he added.
Ollie spoke candidly about how hard it was to see his friend suffering, saying it was ‘heartbreaking, the whole thing.’
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Sam shared the news with fans after he was hospitalised last year (Instagram/samvanderpump)
However, he’s not giving up hope: “I know he’s gonna be all right. I’m sure he’s gonna be all right, but a liver transplant’s a big deal and we just have to stay positive.”
“I’ve done an awful lot of things on the show, coming out on camera, finding out our children have miscarried on camera a few times, getting married on camera, etc. That was really, really, raw, all of that was raw, everything like that, but this was something,” stressed Ollie.
Sam’s fiancée, Alice, being pregnant made it even worse: “I just kept on thinking about him and his family and the baby and Alice, and it just, I like broke down. I struggled with that.”
“But we’re all there as a family, and we’re all trying to do everything we possibly can, and they only live around the corner from us and as I said, we’re having dinner tonight and we’re all just sitting there.”
Sam previously explained his condition to fans: “I was four when I first got diagnosed – through a series of testing, they worked out I had congenital hepatic fibrosis (liver disease). “
“They always said, ‘you potentially may need a liver transplant’, and we went through a lot of testing and a lot of appointments, but as the years went on, they went,’ You’re healthy, you’re fine, you live your life normally’.
“So much to the point that even a year before I got diagnosed, they were like, ‘Oh, we only need to see you every year, live your life normally’.
“Then, all of a sudden, last year I got very ill with sepsis, and things took a bit of a turn.”
He has been told that the only choice now is to have a liver transplant.
