'I Was Given 24 Hours To Live': Cheryl Cole Relives Near Death Experience Fighting Malaria

Cheryl Cole has opened up about her experience with malaria to raise money for BBC's Sport Relief. Incredibly, the Girls Aloud singer, who contracted the disease four years ago, described how she was “lucky” to survive after doctors gave her only 24 hours to live.

Returning to the X Factor must bring back a lot of memories for Cheryl Cole. She won with Alexandra Burke in 2008, performed a powerful rendition of Fight For This Love whilst her marriage with Ashley Cole was in jeopardy and during the audition stages in 2010 she also battled the life-threatening disease, malaria.

Cheryl contracted malaria after taking a holiday in Tanazia. Originally mistaking the life-threatening disease as a hangover, the alarm was raised during a photoshoot for the X Factor after the 3 Words songstress noticed that her lips were turning blue.

Cheryl Cole has returned to the X Factor (FameFlyNet)

In a strange twist of fate, the 30-year-old had raised money for malaria on behalf of Sport Relief just a year before catching it herself.

Talking to the BBC, Cheryl said: “When I climbed Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief five years ago it was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever done.”

“The motivation lay in knowing it could help in eradicating malaria and ultimately saving lives by providing mosquito nets.”

Pictured just days before her malaria was diagnosed, Cheryl out for her birthday in London (WENN)

The Fight For This Love singer then added: “I didn't for one minute think that only a year later I would get malaria myself and become so ill that at one point I was given 24 hours to live.”

“It was the scariest thing you could ever imagine for me and for my friends and family. The pain I felt and went through, it's what so many people go through, all because they don't have a mosquito net which could save their life.”

“I was lucky, I had the best care I could get. Some people are not so lucky.”

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