Stanley Johnson once had to have a flesh-eating bug removed from his bottom.
The ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ contestant – the father of politician Boris Johnson – was trekking around Uganda back in 2002 when he noticed that his backside had ballooned to double its normal size and he was in a lot of pain.
The 77-year-old politician was rushed to the Tropical Diseases Centre in London when he touched back down in the UK and he later found out at a rare tumbu fly had laid its eggs in his underpants while they were hanging up to dry, had penetrated the skin on his bottom, and then the larvae had hatched and tried to eat their way out.
Writing in his book ‘Stanley, I Resume’, he said as he recalled the doctors extracting the fly from his bum: "It looked large and fleshy, well nourished, I would say. I guess it must have been half an inch long , and almost as wide.
"The doctor had plucked it out from a position very near the surface. It had obviously been making a last desperate effort to fight for life and air."
His wife Jenny was so appalled by the thought of larvae wriggling around his bottom that she banished him to the spare room for a few days after the surgery.
Stanley is currently taking part in the creepy-crawly show and, although it’s only been on screens for two days, he’s already emerging as an early favourite to win.
He won over the nation on Sunday night when he admitted that he’s never watched the programme before and he didn’t even know Ant and Dec were the hosts.
Ant told Scarlett Moffat – who won the show last year – on the spin-off ‘Extra Camp’ last night: "Stanley is a bit of a legend already isn’t he? He has gone down well so far. Last year you’s all got on and were dead friendly, I wouldn’t like to see that again this year. We want a little bit of something different."
Stanley Johnson had flesh-eating bug cut out from bottom
