X Factor judge Cheryl Cole has shot up the TellYouGov leaderboard after contracting malaria on a trip to Tanzania. Her volume score has risen by 74 in the last 24 hours pushing her up to a peak of third place with a sentiment score of 163.
The star collapsed at a photoshoot for her new solo album on Saturday and was admitted to a private hospital in London, to be later transferred to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Cheryl visited Tanzania with American dancer Derek Hough, to whom she has been linked romantically. A spokesman for Cole said that she had taken a full course of anti-malarial tablets, but unfortunately she had contacted a different strain of the disease to that against which she was protected.
Since news broke of her illness, Cheryl’s sentiment score has dropped 47 points, giving her a score of -82. Many users, or ‘tyggers’, appear to be bored of the star’s constant media attention, with one commenting ‘who cares’ and another tygging ‘get her out of the headlines’. The poorly singer has attracted negative tygs from people who seem unhappy that her illness has attracted so much attention whilst millions of people who battle with the disease every day have been widely ignored. One irritated tygger commented ‘Malaria kills hundreds and thousands of people every day and they don’t get a mention, but now suddenly it matters because this pointless celeb has it?’
Ironic Relief?
Ironically, Cheryl was one of a group of celebrities, including Gary Barlow, Chris Moyles and Denise Van Outen, to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in 2009 to raise money for Comic Relief. The focus of the trip was to raise awareness of the plight of many on the African continent who lack resources and healthcare needed to combat this rampant, but in many cases, preventable, illness.
Some more sympathetic tyggers have left messages of support for the star. Tygs such as ‘get well soon’ and ‘she works so hard, I hope she recovers soon’ have been appearing on TellYouGov alongside some of the more cutting comments since the news emerged on Monday. One simply wished ‘Get better soon’.
Cheryl is expected to leave hospital within the next couple of days but has announced that she will be cancelling all work commitments for the next two weeks, leaving fellow X Factor mogul Simon Cowell one judge down for the upcoming new series of the talent show phenomenon, disappointing at least one user who had hoped ‘her malaria won’t affect her role’.
And while many seem to agree with the tygger who exclaimed ‘Is it really news when she is ill?’, her sentiment score has improved slightly over the past few hours. Watch this space to see if Cheryl’s recovery on the leaderboard proves as imminent as that from her hospital bed.
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