UK TV presenter hospitalized in Rio with rare malaria strain

A week ago, a statement was released saying; “On Saturday 6th August, Charlie became unwell and was admitted to hospital in Rio de Janeiro”.

Charlie Webster has been brought back to consciousness for the first time in five days as she battles a rare and serious strain of Malaria in a Rio hospital.

The Sun exclusively revealed that the 33-year-old Team GB ambassador is now in a coma in a Brazilian hospital.

Ms Webster presented coverage of the women’s boxing at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

A friend of Charlie’s spoke out just hours before, revealing everyone was “distraught” as the star battled for her life.

On Aug. 12 Webster was put into an induced coma and is now on life support. ‘So the doctors are trying to work out where she could have contracted it from’.

“Charlie is receiving great care and we will updated when we can”.

However, her condition deteriorated after she developed a severe complication from a bacterial infection.

Sheffield-born TV presenter Charlie Webster grew up in the city, where she studied at Tapton School and was a promising junior athlete.

When she began feeling unwell she initially put it down to dehydration and felt well enough to post pictures from hospital on social media.

Representatives for the presenter, who dated Downton Abbey star Allen Leech between 2014 and 2015, shared a link to the article on Twitter and thanked everybody for their support. ‘But she is so strong and a very fit and healthy person in general so we have to keep positive.

The Ride to Rio challenge involves cycling from London to Portsmouth on the south coast, then flying to France where participants cycled 1,231 miles to Lisbon.

“Just shows you can do anything”, Webster told the BBC shortly after she arrived in Rio.

Although malaria is a common infection in tropical climates, previous to the trip, Charlie was informed that she would not be at risk from the disease on her route, so precautionary medicine was not taken.