Strictly’s Gemma Atkinson REVEALS the Heartbreaking Truth About Daughter’s CONDITION After Sh0cking HOSPITAL Visit

Gemma Atkinson’s daughter has received a life-changing diagnosis (Image: Getty)

Gemma Atkinson has revealed that her six-year-old daughter, Mia, has been diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering from absence seizures. The TV presenter, who shares two children with Strictly Come Dancing pro Gorka Marquez, explained on her Just As Wll, The Women’s Health podcast, that their eldest was experiencing loss of awareness and zoning out. As a result, she is now receiving treatment for epilepsy.

Epilepsy is a condition where your brain is affected and causes seizures. It is incurable, but treatment is offered to patients to help manage the symptoms and condition. One type of seizure is an absence seizure, where you lose awareness of what’s going on around you.

She told listeners: “My daughter is under treatment for epilepsy. She has the absence seizures, she doesn’t fit or anything, it’s just a stare out and they’ve got so much better a year in.”

The doting mum admitted that she went down a research “rabbit hole” when her youngster received the diagnosis. She went on: “When I was told that I was like, ‘Right, I need to research, research, research,’ and I went down a rabbit hole.” A doctor recommended putting Mia on a keto diet to help improve her condition.

The former Hollyoaks star explained: “The keto diet was designed for patients with epilepsy because it re-wires their brain function. The doctor told me, ‘If you can get her on a keto diet, it could help with brain function’. The improvement that we’ve had, I mean, we’re constantly monitoring, but the last six months she’s had none, touch wood.”

Gemma also shared the history of the keto diet and how it first started being used as a treatment for epilepsy. She explained that it began back in the 1930s, but that the doctor who found it worked sadly lost all of his notes in a fire, setting the research back years.

Gemma shares daughter Mia with her Strictly star beau (Image: Instagram)

She went on: “It was given to epilepsy patients back in the day, in the 1930s, it was discovered, and it really helped all of the symptoms, and everything went down. But then the doctor who discovered this, his hospital miraculously got burnt down, with all the research and everything.”

The TV star first met her fiancé, Gorka, when she competed on the BBC dance competition back in 2017. On the show, she was partnered with Aljaz Skorjanec, with the dancing duo successfully making it all the way to the final alongside Gorka and his celebrity partner, Alexandra Burke. Since then, Gemma has appeared on the Strictly Christmas Special to dance with her partner.

The happy couple got engaged in February 2021, but have revealed they want to wait until their son is older before officially tying the knot. They told us: “We’ve toyed about doing it in Spain, so his family can come, and we’ve even thought about doing it in a registry office or a hotel in Manchester, just the two of us, and then have a big party after.

“But I think now we want to wait until Thiago is a bit older, so maybe next year or the year after, as he’s only two. If he’s a bit older, he could be involved in it, which would be really nice.”