A Place in the Sun's Lucy Alexander opens up on famous daughter's health battle

Lucy Alexander gave an insight into her family life while presenting today's new episode of A Place in the Sun. The property expert was helping a couple find their dream home in the seaside town of Torrevieja in Spain when she shared that her daughter was in a wheelchair.

The Channel 4 host shared the revelation when house hunters Edith and William told her about needing a home that would be adaptable for their disabled grandaughter, who used a wheelchair to get around. William explained: "She can walk, but not a great distance. She's got the use of a wheelchair."

Lucy opened up about her own similar experience explaining that she knew what the couple needed to think about. She said: "So you've got to think about steps and access. I've got a daughter in a wheelchair so I know exactly what you mean. We can kind of like work that as we go along."

Speaking about filming the episode, Lucy told Express.co.uk: "I think that people with any disability - maybe people that have got elderly parents going on holiday maybe with walking disabilities - I think it's quite important to flag up [accessibility] at all times. Especially with me having Kitty I'm very conscious of everywhere we go and everything we do I have to look at the access. So I think it was a really nice episode and we obviously had a lot in common.

"I think it [accessibility] is important and I think it's just something if you go on holiday quite often - I would have taken my mum and dad on holiday and as they get older people don't want to walk up loads of steps, people want ramps or lifts - that it is more important."

What illness does Lucy Alexander's daughter have?

Lucy's daughter, Kitty, was diagnosed with transverse myelitis - a rare condition that sees the swelling of the spinal cord, when she was seven. In 2012, Kitty suffered from a virus that saw her immune system attack her spinal cord, leaving her paralysed and in a wheelchair.

While appearing on the podcast White Wine Question Time in 2019, Lucy spoke of how her daughter's condition changed her life. She said: "It's been the making of us as a family and of her. It's really phenomenal how I've watched a kid - she's a young woman now – change her life and turn it around.

She added: "Still every day it takes my breath away to see her in a wheelchair wheeling up to me. It's tough, it's bloody tough.

"It makes you so much more selfless, it gives you strength, things that couldn’t bother me before I couldn’t give a flying f*** about. I can connect with people who are sad or grieving like I couldn't before. I have deeper connections with people."

Back in 2013, Kitty spoke about her own experience with her illness. She said: "There are things I can't do any more, but I don't mind; I've found something else I love. My ambition is to be the first actress in a wheelchair to win an Oscar."

Since then, she has become an actress with a role on BBC's EastEnders as Penny Branning.