'Gogglebox' star Shaun Malone opens up on nearly dying as a teenager

Googlebox star Shaun Malone has revealed he almost died as a teenager after developing a brain infection.

The 23-year-old former child actor - who stars on the Channel 4 show with his parents Tom and Julie Malone and his brother Tom Jr - fell into a coma after falling ill and his family were told he had just a 10 per cent chance of surviving.

Shaun told the Coaching From The Sofa podcast: "In 2010 I got sinusitis and in some way, the infection found its way back to my brain,’ he began. ‘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.' 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 10 per cent chance of living."

Read more: 'Gogglebox' viewers complain families are breaking social distancing rules

He went on: "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.’”

The reality TV star - who starred in West End musical Billy Elliot as a child and now coaches Manchester United’s under-16s Ability Counts football team - revealed he suffered mobility problems as a result of the barin damage.

He said: "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."

Read more: Viewers anger as Celebrity Gogglebox appears to break social distancing rules

Shaun appeared on documentary show Children’s Hospital while he was in recovery and the family have discussed his medical battle on Gogglebox before.

While watching a news story about brain surgery, his father Tom said: "The worst thing was he had the shunt thing put in the side of his head and all his skull was missing, he had a woolly hat on, and I brought him to McDonald's down the road.

“He got an ice cream and he was sucking on it, and there was this girl going round cleaning the tables in McDonald's, and he took his hat off and went, 'Ahhhh... brain freeze!' He turned around and all his head was gone. She nearly fainted!”