Gogglebox Star Shaun Malone Reveals He Nearly Died At 15 After A Stroke Left Him Brain Damaged

1 July 2020, 13:28 | Updated: 1 July 2020, 15:36

Gogglebox star Shaun Malone has opened up on his life-threatening brain damage as a teenager.

Shaun, who is part of the Malone family on Gogglebox, spoke about his terrifying experience of brain damage as a teenager which left him close to death.

Speaking on Coaching from the Sofa podcast, Shaun, now 24, explained he developed a sinus infection at 15 which developed into a brain infection.

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His parents were told he had a less than 10 per cent chance of surviving at the time, after the condition put him into a coma.

Shaun recalled: “In 2010 I got sinusitis and in some way, the infection found its way back to my brain.

“My brain started swelling and my skull started crushing it so my mum took me to A&E saying, 'Look he’s poorly!’ and they said it was sinusitis.”

The TV star recalled how he collapsed at home and later ended up with brain damage, with doctors warning his parents he’d be unable to move parts of his body while recovering.

He continued: “And then I collapsed one day at home and I ended up going into a coma and they said to my mum and dad that I had a less than ten per cent chance of living.”

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"I was in a coma for a few weeks – and they said to my mum and dad, 'Shaun’s got brain damage, we don’t know what the brain damage is or how it’ll affect him or if it’s going to be really bad’.”

Shaun said when he woke up, he was unable to move parts of his left side and his memory was also affected.

"And when I woke up my brain damage affected me in some ways, like my memory but mostly the way it affected me was with my left side. I essentially had a stroke, I couldn’t move my left arm, my left leg, even the left side of my face." 

He added in the podcast that joining the Manchester United Foundation has seriously improved his mental health and confidence, after he started playing disability football.

Shaun’s recovery was documented at the time on ITV series Children’s Hospital and the family have mentioned the terrifying experience on Gogglebox in the past.

The 24-year-old didn’t star on the latest series of Gogglebox as he discovered his girlfriend is pregnant just before lockdown began, leaving him unable to travel between homes.

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