According to a report by the Daily Mail, the Fifty Shades of Grey star, had been on holiday with his TV presenter friend Gordon Smart when he revealed he has a “tingling in his left hand and tickling in his left arm”.
'It turns out we'd brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and have been very lucky to come out of that one alive,' said Gordon.
Speaking on Scottish BBC panel show The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, Gordon said after a 'great' first day, he started to feel strange.
'We had a great time the first day, played loads of golf, went out, lots of wine was drunk and then we got on to espresso martinis. Anyway, the next day, we played golf, we were all absolutely dreadful and I started to feel tingling in my left hand and then tickling in my left arm. I'm the son of a GP and thought, "This is normally the sign of the start of a heart attack."
'Now, I'm a fairly healthy guy but once you start thinking, you're having a heart attack, you're pretty sure that you're convincing yourself that you are having one.'
Gordon then took himself to a medical centre where he said he then collapsed and woke up in a hospital bed.
When Gordon returned from hospital he then found his friend Jamie Dornan with medical equipment.
'Jamie said, "Dear me. Gordon, about 20 minutes after you left, my left arm went numb, my left leg went numb, my right leg went numb, and I found myself in the back of an ambulance."'
He was later told by doctors that the symptoms were likely to have been caused by processionary caterpillars.
'And it turns out that there are caterpillars on golf courses in the south of Portugal that have been killing people's dogs and giving men in their 40s heart attacks,' Gordon concluded.
You would think somebody would proof read their article before it was published. Here we have the man talking to himself.
By Martyn Williams from Beiras on 23 Jan 2024, 11:00
Every winter and spring I see nests of these caterpillars in the pine trees along a road where I live. I must have seen hundreds of them. One thing I have noticed is that local people do not seem to make any fuss about this. I do not see anyone destroying the nests and I even see people still walking their dogs through the forest by the roadside. Yes, the caterpillars can be a danger but I think avoidance is the best way of dealing with them. In other words, if you see any, do not touch, and keep away from them.
By Steve Andrews from Other on 23 Jan 2024, 12:01
So they BOTH had symptoms ? The article is rather confusing ...
By Marianne Hesselholdt Burrows from Lisbon on 23 Jan 2024, 12:17
I have no ideas who these two guys are but I suggest they either have a book, film or other event and see this a cheap piece of publicity. Yes animals have been known to die from these caterpillars and humans do get impacted on their skins, but these guys must be wimps !
By Cyril Griffith from Algarve on 23 Jan 2024, 15:57
Drunk tourist is a drunk tourist, whatever their occupation! Lucky they didn’t drive their golf carts into a ditch or start a fight with other golfers. Seriously though, bragging about how much they drank to the press. Immature clowns!
By Stuart Wood from Algarve on 24 Jan 2024, 11:32