Former Coronation Street and Doctor Who star Millie Gibson required emergency surgery after being rushed to hospital when she experienced "abnormal" stomach pains which turned out to be appendicitis. The 21-year-old star took to her Instagram stories to issue a warning to fans from her hospital bed as she advised them to "listen to their bodies".
Writing over an image of her hooked up to monitors she penned: "Hi all, I don’t usually post things like this but I just thought it was important to share awareness. On Thursday afternoon I went to a&e with abnormal stomach pain not knowing what it was. The doctors diagnosed me with appendicitis later that evening and organised surgery for the morning. I’ve never had a health scare like this and if it wasn’t for someone’s advice pushing me to go to a&e my appendix would have ruptured. I had no prior symptoms, it came on in the space of an hour," she revealed. She signed offf imploring fans to: "Please listen to your bodies."
According to the NHS website symptoms of appendicitis usually start with pain in the middle of your abdomen around your belly button. After a few hours the pain usually moves to the lower right side of your abdomen, and gets worse.
The pain may feel worse when you move, cough or press on the area. It may feel slightly better when you pull your knees up to your chest.
They warn if it is not treated quickly, the appendix can burst short time which will relieve the pain for a short time before developing into a severe pain that spreads to the whole of your abdomen.
Surgically removing it immediately to get rid of the pain is the usual treatment but the body can survive without the organ. Recovery from the procedure takes 1-3 weeks for keyhole surgery or 3-6 weeks for open surgery.
Millie starred as troubled teen Kellie Neelon in the Weatherfield set long running ITV soap from 2019 until 2022.
She made her first appearance on Christmas Day 2023 and remained with the show until the 2025 season finale, which also marked Ncuti Gatwa's final appearance in the lead role.
