tent

I’m A Celebrity star Alex Scott opens up about being taken to the medical tent during a wide-ranging interview with the Mirror after she left the jungle

TV presenter Alex Scott was forced to go to the medical tent in scenes not aired by ITV. She says that she was left “panicking” after a tic burrowed into her shoulder – and Kelly Brook demanded she sought help,

She said: “I was sitting next to Martin after carrying the logs and I felt my shoulder, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big spot that’s come up.’ I asked him to have a look, then Kelly jumps up and says, ‘It’s a tick.’ I was panicking as she was shouting that I needed to get to medical. I knew about ticks and leeches, but I always thought it wouldn’t happen to me. They got it off but no one else has had one.”

She also revealed that Ginge was affected by leeches too in the wet conditions. Alex opened up to the Mirror as part of a wide-ranging interview. In it she told how her heart sank when she realised Jess Glynne wasn’t waiting for her when she left. The former England star already knew there was a chance that her popstar partner wouldn’t be waiting.

Before she even flew to Australia, Jess’s mum had suffered a stroke, and Alex agonised over whether to pull out of the show. In the end, it was Jess who told her she had to go. “It’s been a tough time for us and obviously her family, and it was a tough decision to come into the jungle, but then Jess never wanted me to step away from not doing it,”

Alex said. “I knew there was always a possibility of her not being across the bridge, if her mum hadn’t got better, or if things had been getting worse, which they have been. But it was a big decision for me to not pass this opportunity, and Jess was the one that pushed me to be here.”

Hours after Alex left the jungle, Jess posted on social media as to why she wasn’t there to greet her. In an emotional statement, she told how over the last few weeks her mother had “suffered a major stroke and needed urgent brain surgery.” She added: “It’s been a really serious, life-altering time for my family, and I’ve had to stay close to home. Alex would always want me to be where l’m needed most. I can’t wait to have her back by my side.”

Asked if she considered pulling out of the show, Alex said: “Oh, yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. But Jess was the one that wanted me to do this, so that’s why I wanted to go in and still make her proud.”

Alex also opened up about being embroiled in one of the camp’s biggest talking points: her salt smuggling operation. The camp had a star taken away after she was spotted sneaking seasoning on crocodile feet.

“I felt like such a naughty schoolgirl, like I should have been put in detention or something,” she laughs. “We had stopped at a service station, and they just had all these little sachets of salt and pepper. I was staring at them for ages, like, ‘Shall I? No… they’ll frisk me.’ But I put them down my socks and didn’t get checked.” And she reveals that a string of other campmates knew about her secret contraband stash. “Jack knew about it, Ginge saw me one night… he just kept giving me the eye. Shona knew about it from early days,” she admits.

As for who she thinks will be crowned this year, Alex says it’s likely to come down to the fan favourites. “Personally, I think, from the public and how the trials have been going, it’s going to be Ginge or Aitch between those two. Because of their fan base and how they’ve come across. I’d love for Shona to win, that would be a beautiful story. But I think it’ll be between one of the boys.”

Palestinians call for better tents and other supplies as Israel maintains restrictions on aid to war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Displaced Palestinians are reeling after heavy rains flooded their tents in makeshift displacement camps in Gaza City, as the United Nations warns that Israeli restrictions on aid have left hundreds of thousands of families without adequate shelter.

Abdulrahman Asaliyah, a displaced Palestinian man, told Al Jazeera on Friday that residents’ mattresses, clothes and other belongings were soaked in the flooding.

“We are calling for help, for new tents that can at least protect people from the winter cold,” he said, explaining that nearly two dozen people had been working for hours to get the water to drain from the area.

“This winter rain is a blessing from God, but there are families who no longer wish for it to fall, fearing for the lives of their children and their own survival,” Asaliyah said.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Friday’s flooding primarily affected Palestinians in the north of the Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people have returned following last month’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Flooding was also reported in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, said the rescue agency, which urged the international community to do more to “address the suffering” of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed in Israel’s two-year war on the enclave.

“We urge the swift delivery of homes, caravans, and tents to these displaced families to help alleviate their suffering, especially as we are at the beginning of winter,” it said in a statement.

While the October 10 ceasefire has allowed more aid to get into the Gaza Strip, the UN and other humanitarian groups say Palestinians still lack adequate food, medicine and other critical supplies, including shelter.

Aid groups working to provide shelter assistance in the occupied Palestinian territory said in early November that about 260,000 Palestinian families, totalling almost 1.5 million people, were vulnerable as the cold winter months approached.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said this week that it has enough shelter supplies to help as many as 1.3 million Palestinians.

But UNRWA said Israel continues to block its efforts to bring aid into Gaza despite the ceasefire deal, which stipulated that humanitarian assistance must be delivered to Palestinians in need.

“We have a very short chance to protect families from the winter rains and cold,” Angelita Caredda, Middle East and North Africa director at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said in a statement on November 5.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah on Friday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Palestinians across Gaza have been voicing fears that this winter would be particularly difficult due to the lack of safe shelter.

“It only rained for a couple of minutes – 30 minutes or so … [and] they were completely flooded,” she said. “Their tents are very fragile and worn-out; they have been using them for the past two years.”

She added that most Palestinians do not have any other options but to remain in tent camps or overcrowded shelters, despite the difficulties.

“We’re already seeing Palestinian children walking barefoot. They do not have winter clothes. They do not have blankets. And at the same time, the aid that is coming in … is being restricted,” Khoudary said.

Back in Gaza City, another displaced Palestinian man affected by the heavy rains, Abu Ghassan, said he and his family “no longer have a normal life”.

“I’m lifting the mattresses so the children don’t get soaked,” he told Al Jazeera. “But the little ones were already drenched here. We don’t even have proper tents.”