Sam Bailey speaks out about terrifying Bell’s palsy which threatened to ruin career

Sam Bailey has spoken of her devastation after discovering she had Bell’s palsy.

The former X Factor winner found she had the condition, which causes facial weakness, shortly after giving birth to daughter Miley and was terrified it would destroy her career.

She told the Daily Mirror: “My career is built around the power of my voice so one of the most frightening things about Bell’s palsy was when I discovered I was unable to talk or sing properly.”

Sam is now recovering well but started to notice something was wrong in October.

The singer had never heard of the illness before and thought she had an ear infection when she began to suffer terrible pain behind her left ear lobe.

She said: “The pain was so severe that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else but I tried to ignore it. It was half term and I had a big day out at Disney on Ice in Birmingham with the children so I didn’t want to spoil their day by going to the doctor.

“We went to a restaurant after the show and my five-year-old son Tommy, who is one for the ladies, was winking at the waitress and I tried to wink at him across the table but I couldn’t.

“At that point I felt quite panicky but I didn’t put two and two together with my earache. I just thought maybe I was tired.”

Sam’s husband Craig took her straight to hospital when she returned from her day out but doctors diagnosed an ear infection and sent her home with paracetamol.

After doing research online, Sam matched her symptoms to Bell’s palsy but worried herself when she found out the condition can be permanent.

She contacted her doctor again who ordered her to go straight back to A&E to rule out a stroke.

As the condition became worse, Sam became withdrawn and asked friends to drop her children at school so other people didn’t see her.

She credits her children with helping her feel better and says humour is one of the things that got her through.

Sam has now recovered and, after returning to the X Factor stage at this year’s semi-final, she was delighted with the positive comments she received on Twitter.

She now plans to take things easy as she is well aware Bell’s palsy could return in the future.

The star concluded: “I am so grateful I feel better now but now I need to keep my stress levels down – so everyone needs to be nice to me!

“I have been lucky with my illness in my life and I am generally healthy.”