The Love Island All Stars winner, 33, opened up about the potentially debilitating condition in an interview with This Morning
Gabby Allen has lifted the lid on a frightening health ordeal she faced during her childhood years. The Love Island All Stars winner, 33, said doctors even feared she’d never walk again amid the potentially debilitating diagnosis.
“I was around 11 or 12 years old,” she told presenters on ITV’s This Morning. “I was actually on holiday and my dad was teaching me how to dive, and my mum was like, ‘Wait a minute, she’s a bit wonky.’ And then, straight away when we got home, they took me to the doctors.”
Gabby was soon diagnosed with scoliosis, a condition that causes the spine to twist or curve sideways. While this may be noticeable externally, other signs can include uneven shoulders, ill-fitting clothes, and a rib or hip protruding on one side.
The NHS explains that scoliosis can affect people at any age, although it most commonly occurs in children aged 10 to 15. Treatment isn’t always necessary, but Gabby was quickly urged to undergo surgery as her condition was progressing rapidly.
“And within a few months, I was already on the operating table because it was growing so quickly,” Gabby continued, to which presenter Rochelle Humes said: “At one point, you thought, or you were told, that you might not ever walk again… That is quite something to hear.”
Gabby then replied: “I think as a young girl, the scariest thing for me was that I was never going to dance again. It was like, ‘It doesn’t matter about walking, I need to be able to dance,’ because that’s what I wanted to do.
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“So, I wasn’t told much information before going in, obviously my parents didn’t want to scare me, but yeah. It is a 10-hour operation, well, the one that I had was, and they diffused my whole spine from top to bottom.
“I’ve got rods through the whole spine, nuts and bolts and everything. And you have to sign a form saying that, you know, there’s a chance that you might not be able to walk again.
“I did have to learn how to walk again, but within six months, I was dancing. I won ballet competitions, like nine months later. So, I think that is what built my resilience to be where I am now with, like strength training.”
Gabby has previously mentioned that enrolling in a personal training course was a ‘turning point’ in her life after enduring a long stretch of self-destructive behaviour. Unfortunately, this change came after her father died only two weeks before her 21st birthday.
According to the Mirror, she wrote in a 2024 Instagram post: “I used to go through a cycle of binge eating and starving. I used to obsessively count and allow myself very low calories, then get so hungry I’d binge on SH***.
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“I used to do fad diets like juice plus and then binge again. I used to go out and drink four bottles of wine, eat a Chinese on the way home, then have a fry-up the next day and not move a muscle. I was miserable, I lacked structure, motivation, discipline and drive.”
However, she later added: “Fast-forward seven years, I am still a work in progress but I have come a long way. Building strength in my body is the driving force in my life. It makes me feel strong inside and out and I couldn’t do without it.”