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Celebrity

12th Aug 2021

Una Healy opens up about struggles with autoimmune disease diagnosis

Ellen Fitzpatrick

She urged fans to get checked.

Una Healy revealed recently that she has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, but now she’s speaking out about her struggles managing it.

Revealing she suffers from Hashimoto’s, The Saturday’s singer has updated fans, telling them that she’ll be taking medication to keep it under control for the rest of her life.

Hashimoto’s disease causes the immune system to turn on the thyroid gland and can leave a person with a number of different side effects like fatigue, fertility issues, weight gain among others.

Previously fearing that she might never have children due to her illness, the now mother of two has opened up about the early signs people need to look out for.

Speaking to Canadian singer Emma Gryner, Una said: “I remember when I joined The Saturday’s first, you probably hear it a lot on my early recordings, my voice is a lot huskier, now I do have a huskier tone that comes out sometimes, like a rasp.

“I found it was happening more and more and I went in one day to demo a song we were doing with the girls and the producer went “Ok, can you do that again” and he looked really worried.”

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After losing her voice on tour, she was examined by a doctor who asked had she ever had her thyroid examined, which then led to her diagnosis.

Revealing she is now on lifetime medication, Una said: “So now I am on thyroxine, I have to take it daily, forever. But I am totally healthy and completely normal.”

Una continued on to urge people to look out for the signs, and if they sense that there might be some type of issue, get checked for it as she said she was lucky to have been diagnosed so early.