Television presenter Ben Fogle has thanked the public for their support after he contracted a potentially fatal flesh-eating bug, thought to have been picked up on a TV shoot.
The 35-year-old adventurer has started treatment for the disease - and still plans to head off for a South Pole Race next month with Olympic gold medal-winning rower James Cracknell.
The 370-mile race follows in the footsteps of Roald Amundsen and Captain Robert Scott and will see entrants pull sledges across the ice and snow to beat teams from across the world to the South Pole.
Fogle, who developed a hole in his right arm after a sore broke out, has been told he is suffering from a skin-eating parasite passed by the bite of a sand fly.
It is thought that he contracted this while filming the latest series of 'Extreme Dreams' during the summer in Peru, despite all precautions being taken.
The leishmaniasis disease is being treated with a month's course of high dose drugs taken intravenously for an hour every day.
Fogle's spokeswoman said he was in good spirits and coping well with the medication he is receiving at London's University College Hospital (UCH). His health is being monitored closely in an infectious diseases wing and is undergoing heart tests and blood tests every other day.
Fogle, who lives in London with his wife Marina, said he was feeling "frustrated as the cure is worse than the disease but reassured that I am in expert hands".
His spokeswoman said he would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of concern and support.
