A wave of American teens are using laxatives as a ‘budget Ozempic’ to feel skinnier, which is contributing to a shortage of the stool-loosening drugs.

Demand is beginning to outstrip supply for polyethylene glycol 3350, the generic name for laxatives like Miralax and Glycolax.

The teens descending on the laxatives may mean that people who actually need them to treat genuine constipation cannot access the drug, such as those with Crohn’s disease.

Laxatives may give the impression of short-term weight loss, but only water weight is lost and is put back on when someone drinks again.

An aging population in America, as well as a general lack of fiber in diets, is also causing the laxative shortage.

Eating disorder specialist Dr Jenna DiLossi told the Wall Street Journal she had seen a sharp rise in teenage patients abusing laxatives over the past two years, with some viewing it as an over-the-counter form of Ozempic.

Laxatives are drugs that loosen stools and increase bowel movements and are used to treat and prevent constipation. They work by drawing in water or physically stimulating the colon to contract. 

Some people might think that laxatives will help them poop out what they have eaten before the body absorbs the calories, meaning they will lose weight.

But this is false. The food we eat goes through many processes before it reaches your bowel and becomes stool.

The body absorbs the calories, fat, and the majority of nutrients before they reach the large intestine.

What is left is mainly water and some minerals which your body does not need. Some of it is absorbed by the body in the large intestine.

If someone takes laxatives and loses weight, they are only losing water. As soon as they drink something, they will regain the weight back.

Prior to the pandemic, Dr DiLossi said new clients rarely responded ‘yes’ to laxative use in intake surveys.

The clinical psychologist from Pennsylvania said that now, at least three of the five new teens she typically sees a week admit to having tried a laxative for weight loss.

‘When people have an excessive bowel movement and they feel completely empty inside, that gets wrapped up in thinness and health,’ she said.

Dr DiLossi said teens told her they got the idea to try laxatives from TikTok, where the hashtag #GutTok has garnered 1.1 billion views.

She said that even the videos that do not directly promote laxatives for weight loss still endorse the idea that going to the bathroom more often is better for you.

According to analytics company Pattern, searches for laxative pills on Amazon have more than tripled over the past year.

Meanwhile, the companies manufacturing the fiber supplements Metamucil and Benefiber have reported huge sales growth in recent years.

Dow Chemical, which makes pharmaceutical ingredients for drug companies, is building new factories which employees said is partly to produce more polyethylene glycol — the laxative that has been hard to get since the pandemic. Polyethylene glycol is also used in cleaning products and moisturizers.

Surprisingly, growing numbers of younger customers are using fiber supplements, suppliers say.

Haleon, the manufacturer of Benefiber, a popular plant-based fiber supplement, said that 18-42-year-olds are copping the supplement quicker than ever.

Jissan Cherian, who is head of marketing at Haleon and notes that its messaging has not altered, said: ‘The demand has changed.’

He thinks the move is due to millennials becoming more focused on wellness and an increasing awareness of the relationship between gut bacteria and depression.

Earlier this year, Haleon launched a gummy version of its product to appeal specifically to young adults.

A TikTok user has revealed the area of your body that is most infested with bacteria — and it’s not where you’d think.

After breathing onto a petri dish, Chloe Fitzpatrick, a designer, found out her breath was crawling with the most microorganisms out of the five areas she tested.

Her fingers were also host to plenty of bacterial colonies, she found, but the petri dishes touched by her toes, ribs and legs showed relatively little growth.

Scientists say a person’s mouth can contain a significant number of bacteria, fungi and viruses, which would explain why Ms Fitzpatrick’s breath produced the germiest petri dish.

The mouth is the second most infested area in the body, containing more than 20billion bacteria, behind only the gut.

While it may seem disgusting, it is completely normal to have these microorganisms in your mouth, scientists said, because they aid with digestion and help the immune system learn the difference between safe and dangerous bacteria. 

But, without proper oral hygiene, they can lead someone to have bad breath and dental problems.

Failing to brush regularly allows bacteria to multiply in the mouth, leading more compounds to build up that can cause bad breath.

For her experiment, Ms Fitzpatrick — who lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland — touched five places on her body into separate petri dishes.

She then left the dishes in a warm place to grow for several days before viewing the results.

She posted the video to TikTok with the caption: ‘Soo many different colonies!! Ribs always have the prettiest bacteria.’

Some users commented saying everyone should remember that ‘not all bacteria is bad!!!’

Other viewers were less reserved, however, saying the breath sample was a ‘little concerning’ and they were ‘going to take ten showers’.

Dr Priya Deo, an oral microbiologist at Dental College and Hospital in Pune, India, and others have written previously in a study: ‘The mouth with its various niches is an exceptionally complex habitat where microbes colonize the hard surfaces of the teeth and the soft tissues of the oral mucosa.

‘In addition to being the initiation point of digestion, the oral microbiome is crucial in maintaining oral as well as [whole body] health.’

Ms Fitzpatrick says she is a designer who uses bacteria in her artistic work.

For her 2022 project ‘microbiome’, she grew bacteria from plants and parts of her body before preserving them in resin which could be worn as jewelry.

She said she chose the bacteria because of their yellow and red colors.

Her experiment comes after another citizen scientist revealed that shaking your hands to dry them may be the most sanitary option.

To research whether hand dryers cover your hands in bacteria, a 33-year-old from Utah held petri dishes underneath the machines.

He sampled machines at public restrooms, gas stations, movie theaters and shops across his local city of Provo.

After leaving the petri dishes for three days, he found the dishes were all crawling with bacteria and fungi, which appeared in white, yellow and black smudges.

The public bathroom dryer appeared to be the most contaminated, he said.

He also found a petri dish waved through the air, to mimic someone shaking their hands dry, remained completely clean.

A New Jersey woman was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 28 after doctors dismissed her symptoms as ‘part of pregnancy.’

Kelly Spill, now 31, was eight months pregnant with her first child when she started having constipation and blood in her stool. 

Her doctors assured her it was normal, as she was so close to giving birth. But after eight months, her bowel habits continued to worsen. Still, doctors insisted the changes were from having just had a baby.

When doctors finally ordered a colonoscopy, they discovered stage three colorectal cancer, which has exploded into an epidemic in young Americans.

‘I felt very exhausted, and it made me second-guess what I was actually feeling because I was being brushed off,’ Ms Spill told TODAY.com. 

‘When you don’t have someone listening to you, it’s really, really hard to continue to keep going.’

The blood in her stool, the most common symptom young people with colorectal cancer report, was blamed on pregnancy hemorrhoids, which can affect one in three pregnant women, according to the Cleveland Clinic. 

Even after giving birth, doctors assured her it was a normal postpartum symptom. She was still constipated, and the blood in her stool was dark and sticky rather than bright red. 

Ms Spill was also in the middle of moving from California to New Jersey at the time, so she thought stress may have been to blame. 

However, when her son was five months old, her symptoms became even more concerning. She lost her appetite, becoming full after just one bite, and lost seven pounds.

Then, one day, there was ‘a pool of blood’ in the toilet. That’s when she realized something was wrong. 

At the emergency room, doctors told Ms Spill to lay off the spicy foods. 

After seeing another primary care doctor and a gastroenterologist, she finally had a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. 

In the parking lot, she broke down crying.

Colorectal cancer rates are on the rise worldwide, especially in people who are young.  

Rates are expected to double in under-50s in the US by 2030, and colorectal cancer is also expected to become the leading cause of cancer deaths in Americans under 50 by the end of the decade. 

This is based on data from JAMA Surgery, which found that between 2010 and 2030, colon cancer will have increased by 90 percent in people ages 20 to 34. Rectal cancer will have spiked by 124 percent in the same age group.

Cancers of the colon and rectum are the third most common type in the US and the third leading cause of death in both men and women.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates about 153,000 colorectal cancer cases will be detected this year, including 19,500 among those under 50 years old.

Some 52,550 people are expected to die from the disease.

Experts are still working to unravel the cause of this devastating epidemic. 

They have commonly blamed unhealthy diets, alcohol consumption, and sedentary lifestyles on this shift.

A study from the Cleveland Clinic suggested that eating red meat and sugar could lead to a higher chance of young people developing colorectal cancer.  

However, some research suggests otherwise. 

A 2021 study, for example, found that early-onset cancer patients were less likely to be obese or be smokers than their older counterparts. 

A study published in April examined how being born via C-section influenced the chance of developing early-onset colorectal cancer. The researchers found that females born via C-section were more likely to develop colorectal cancer earlier in life than those born vaginally. There was no association among males.

Additionally, antibiotic use has been shown to impact this risk. One study in the journal Gut found that prolonged antibiotic use increased the risk of early-onset colon cancer. However, it was also associated with a lower risk of rectal cancer. 

And one study showed that the fungus Cladosporium sp. was more common in the tumors of young patients than in older individuals.

It’s still unclear how Cladosporium sp. could lead to this increase in cases, but the researchers think it could damage cell DNA. This could turn them into cancerous cells. 

These environmental factors have a lasting impact on the gut microbiome, which experts think could increase the risk of colorectal cancer, even when exposure is limited to early life. 

At the time of her diagnosis, doctors told Ms Spill it was time to preserve her eggs before chemotherapy and radiation so she could have another child later. She and her partner were also planning on getting married in Switzerland. When she asked the doctor if she could still do that, he said ‘absolutely not.’

As she prepared for treatment, a nurse asked her if she would be willing to participate in a clinical trial for an immunotherapy drug. If it shrunk the tumor, she could skip chemo and radiation.

The trial is still ongoing and has enrolled 42 patients so far. It involves patients receiving the medication dostarlimab via an infusion every three weeks for six months. 

Ms Spill noticed a difference after her second infusion and ‘felt great.’

After four treatments, her tumor had been slashed in half.

By the ninth treatment, the tumor was completely gone. She said it was ‘probably the best day of my life.’

Ms Spill is far from the only young patient who has had their symptoms dismissed by doctors.

Part of what makes colorectal cancer difficult to diagnose is its symptoms, which can often be attributed to other conditions. However, some stand out more than others. 

A study published earlier this year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that the most reported symptoms were abdominal pain, blood in the stool, diarrhea, and iron-deficiency anemia. 

Additionally, in a 2020 survey by Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 68 percent of participants said they experienced blood in their stool. The average participant age was 42. 

The same survey also found that many patients with colorectal cancer symptoms were initially misdiagnosed or dismissed. 

Spending longer amounts of time without a diagnosis could allow colorectal cancer to advance to later stages, making it more difficult to treat. 

Ms Spill has since gotten married and had her second child, a daughter named Maya Grace. She also encourages others to speak up when they feel something isn’t right.

‘Go with your gut when you feel something is up with your body,’ she said. ‘Really advocate for yourself, continue to push.’

• Half of patients with this type of bowel cancer will require a stoma after surgery
• Drug Durvalumb has been successful in trials, leaving surgery unnecessary 

By Eve Simmons

Published: 17:55 EDT, 19 August 2023 | Updated: 18:18 EDT, 19 August 2023

Medical degrees are set to be slashed from five years to four in a drive to put tens of thousands of extra doctors on hospital wards.

Ministers plan to take advantage of Brexit to change rules on training, which were previously imposed by the EU.

The move forms part of a package of measures aimed at slashing waiting lists by boosting the NHS workforce, with 60,000 more doctors and an extra 170,000 nurses by 2036/37.

Bosses also expect to have an additional 71,000 allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, midwives and pharmacists.

The ambitious proposals are detailed in the first NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, which is published today and supported by £2.4billion of Government funding.

The blueprint warns that staffing shortages within the health service could more than triple over the next 15 years – from 112,000 to 360,000 – as a result of a growing and ageing population, coupled with new treatments. 

The NHS says it will seek to embrace more homegrown talent and reduce its reliance on overseas employees as competition for healthcare workers is rising around the world.

A record recruitment drive will also allow it to become less dependent on expensive agency staff, cutting the bill for taxpayers by around £10billion between 2030 and 2037.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, described it as a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity to put staffing on a sustainable footing and improve patient care’.

Measures in the plan, which comes ahead of the NHS’s 75th anniversary on Wednesday, include:

• Doubling medical school training places to 15,000 by 2031, with new schools and more places in areas with the greatest shortages;

• Increasing GP training places by half to 6,000 by 2031;

• Almost doubling the number of adult nurse training places, with 24,000 more nurse and midwife training places a year by 2031;

• Allowing staff to ‘earn while they learn’, with apprenticeships that lead to a full degree but more-on-the-job training;

• Greater reliance on ‘associate’ roles that can help with less demanding tasks, freeing up senior colleagues for complex cases;

• Expanding training for clinical psychology and child and adolescent psychotherapy, with places rising by more than a quarter to 1,300 by 2031;

• A renewed focus on retention with better opportunities for career development, improved flexible working and pension reforms to keep 130,000 staff working in the NHS for longer.

The NHS and Government will consult with the medical regulator and universities on introducing four-year medical degrees. Graduates would still need to follow their degrees with a further two years of foundation training in a hospital, as is currently the case.

Prior to exiting the EU, UK training was governed by the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications directive (MRPQ), which stipulates 5,500 training hours and at least five years to become a doctor. 

The Department of Health and Social Care says that now the UK is no longer bound by the directive it can consider options on how to shorten training periods.

The General Medical Council would need to be assured of no risk to patient safety but last night appeared to back the move, saying there is ‘a strong case for innovation in medical education’.

Over the next five years alone, medical places may increase by almost a third, nursing degrees will increase by more than a third and GP training places will jump by a quarter. 

Meanwhile, 16 per cent of all training places for clinical staff will be offered through apprenticeships by 2028 – including more than 850 medical students. 

Mrs Pritchard said: ‘The publication of our first-ever NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan now gives us a once–in–a–generation opportunity to put staffing on sustainable footing for the years to come.

‘As we look to adapt to new and rising demand for health services globally, this long-term blueprint is the first step in a major and much-needed expansion of our workforce to ensure we have the staff we need to deliver for patients.’

Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, said patients will ‘really welcome the news’ that the NHS will train more doctors and nurses.

But Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead at the British Medical Association, said: ‘Accelerated undergraduate degrees and apprenticeships are untested, and must not mean a two-tiered system of doctors.’

Rishi Sunak said: ‘On the 75th anniversary of our health service, this Government is making the largest single expansion in NHS education and training in its history. This is a plan for investment and a plan for reform.’

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: ‘Our plan will end the reliance on expensive agency staff, while cutting waiting lists in the coming years and building an NHS which can match up to the scale of tomorrow’s challenges.’

Professor Sir Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, also backed the proposed reforms to training and staff retention, saying they will ‘create opportunities for more people to study and train in parts of the country that have historically struggled to recruit’.

The Health Secretary said the plan was about getting ‘care to patients quicker’ as he pledged to boost domestic training and improve job opportunities for staff already working in the service.

Steve Barclay told Sky News: ‘It is a hugely important day for the NHS. It is something that many in the NHS have been asking for, for a long time, to have a long-term workforce plan.

‘It is the biggest ever expansion in workforce training in the NHS’ history. It is backed up by £2.4billion of additional funding over the next five years.

‘And what it will do is train more staff, more doctors, more nurses, more midwives, but also give more opportunities to the staff within the NHS in terms of apprenticeships, developing more skills, their continual professional development.

‘And it will also look at how we reform some of our training, making that more efficient so that we can get care to patients quicker.

‘We recognise from the pandemic that there are big waiting lists, we’ve got a plan to clear those but in terms of the longer-term position of the NHS, we also need to boost our domestic training, and that is what the plan today sets out, that long-term vision for the NHS.’

Latest NHS performance data shows that the waiting list for routine operations soared to another record high.

More than 7.42million patients in England — or one in eight people — are now in the queue for ops like hip replacements. This includes 370,000 people stuck in limbo for at least a year, often in pain.

Experts have warned the backlog won’t start to shrink until the huge staffing crisis engulfing the ailing health service starts to ease. 

But strikes by up to 34,000 NHS consultants over two days next month, is likely to lead to the cancellation of more than 300,000 appointments, hampering efforts to clear record waiting lists.

It is estimated that more than 650,000 routine operations and appointments have been put off since December due to industrial action. 

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told Times Radio he had been calling on the Government to adopt Labour’s plan for the biggest expansion of of the NHS workforce in history.

He added: ‘To be fair to the Government, it looks like they’re about to adopt our plan, and that’s important because having had an understaffed NHS for more than a decade.

‘Knowing how long it takes to train new doctors, new nurses, new midwives, it’s really important that we get our skates on as a country. And if the Government have swallowed their pride and adopted our plan, why wouldn’t I welcome that?’

Asked if he would stick to the plan if Labour won the next general election, Mr Streeting said he would be speaking further to Steve Barclay, adding: ‘It is important that we do long term planning and I think one of the reasons the NHS is in the state that it’s in today is because for 13 years now, we have not had a consistent plan.’

He added that the ‘lesson from the last Labour Government is that it’s investment that matters but also reform and where we would go further than the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history, which we’d already committed to, is a reform agenda that seeks to modernise the NHS and make sure it’s fit to meet the challenges of 2048 rather than 1948 when it was created.

He said care needed to be shifted into the community and the NHS needed to switch ‘from an analogue NHS to a digital NHS’, adding: ‘We’ve also got to shift the focus so that we’re not just the national sickness service, but one that focuses on promoting good health – prevention is really crucial.’

He said the NHS ‘is a service not a shrine’ and ‘we’ve got to stop kind of just thinking of it as a national religion and make sure that it is an institution and a system that delivers the best outcomes and it’s got the potential to do that, but it does need reform.’

The Prince of Wales has praised troops for doing a ‘really good job’ during the final rehearsal ahead of Trooping the Colour, ‘despite difficult conditions’, after two soldiers ‘fainted’ in the heat. 

During the practice session, known as the Colonel’s Review, a member of The Band collapsed; a photo showed the soldier lying on the ground with an instrument in hand. Another person was snapped being carried away on a stretcher.

The service at Horse Guards Parade in London – which saw Prince William inspect the Welsh Guards while on horseback – is effectively a final rehearsal for Trooping The Colour, which takes place next Saturday to mark King Charles III’s official birthday.

William, 40, who became Colonel of the Welsh Guards in December 2022, looked incredibly smart in his red military uniform, which he teamed with the traditional bearskin hat, while proudly displaying several medals on his chest.

Taking to Twitter after the service, the Prince of Wales wrote: ‘A big thank you to every solider who took part in the Colonel’s Review this morning in the heat. Difficult conditions but you all did a really good job. Thank you. W.’

This year’s event is particularly significant because it is the first since Charles succeeded to the throne last September. But while the British Royal Family usually turn out in force for the occasion, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not been invited, according to The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden. 

He wrote in his column today: ‘When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit royal duties three years ago, Queen Elizabeth said they would “always be much loved members of my family”. 

‘And Buckingham Palace officials were keen to stress that they would continue to be invited to family events. I hear that Prince Harry and Meghan have not, however, been invited to the King’s Birthday Parade next weekend.

‘It will be the first time in Harry’s life that he has not been welcome at the monarch’s official birthday celebrations.’

‘I’m afraid it’s a reflection of the state of relations at the moment,’ a source said.

Harry and Meghan travelled from California for last year’s Trooping the Colour, which became part of the late Queen’s platinum jubilee weekend.

The couple were invited by the late monarch to watch the ceremony with other members of the Royal Family from offices overlooking Horse Guards Parade.

They were not, however, asked to be on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the official flypast later in the day.

The official birthday of the Sovereign is marked each year by a military parade and march-past, known as Trooping the Colour. The troops participating in the parade are drawn of fully trained, operational troops from the Household Division.

The monarch’s colour of a battalion of Foot Guards is ‘trooped’ – carried along the ranks – each year before the Sovereign. 

Only one colour can be trooped at a time, and the five Household Regiments – Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards take their turn each year.

The ceremony derives from two old military ceremonies, Trooping the Colour and Mounting The Queen’s Guard.

The origin of the ceremony goes back to the early eighteenth century, and possibly even earlier, when the guards and sentries for the Royal Palaces and other important buildings in the capital were mounted daily on the parade ground by the Horse Guards building.

A feature of guard mounting was for the colours of the battalion to be carried (or ‘trooped’) slowly down the ranks so that they could be seen and recognised by the soldiers.

After the Trooping ceremony, the Royal Family will make their way back to Buckingham Palace where shortly after, several members will appear on the balcony.

The Royal Family usually travel to Horse Guards Parade in carriages and those members of the Royal Family who’re on parade as Colonels of the regiments of Foot Guards, ride on horses on parade.

Other members of the Royal Family watch the parade from the Horse Guards Parade building from the Duke of Wellington’s old office, overlooking the parade ground.

Tickets for the Trooping the Colour are available to the public, but are chosen by ballot early in the year.

For those who are unsuccessful in their application, securing a spot on The Mall is certainly the next best thing, as the march passes from St James’s down towards Buckingham Palace.

Ireland, Malta, Latvia, the Netherlands and Azerbaijan are out of the running for Eurovision 2023. 

On Tuesday night, 15 countries performed at the M&S Bank arena in part one of two semi-finals for the chance to win a place in Saturday’s grand final. 

Ten acts made it through with Finland favourite Kaarija and Sweden’s former winner Loreen who was victorious in 2012 with her hit Euphoria, also secured a place. 

Hosted by Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham and Julia Sanina, the stadium was lit up by an array of wacky, moving and colourful acts, while King Charles, Queen Camilla and the late Paul O’Grady starred in a opening video to kick off the show. 

The ten acts who made it through were; Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Sweden, Serbia, Portugal and Norway. 

In a change to the rules this year, the decision of who goes through is entirely down to the public, with national juries being able to have their say during the final on Saturday. 

31 countries will compete in two semi-finals with 10 from each going through to the Grand Final. 

Last year’s winner Ukraine automatically progressed to the Grand Final, along with the big five, comprising the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. 

The night kicked off with a performance from Norway. Alessandra performed Queen of Kings followed by Malta’s The Busker with Dance Our Own Party. 

Other countries performing were Serbia (Luke Black with Samo Mi Se Spava), Latvia (Aija with Sudden Lights), Portugal (Mimicat performing Ai Coracao), Ireland’s (Wild Youth singing We Are One). 

Croatian rock band Let 3, who first formed in the 1980s, gave it their all are through to the grand final.  Switzerland’s Remo Forrer followed and also got through to Saturday as did Noa Kirel from Israel, who is one of the country’s biggest stars and sang Unicorn. 

Other acts included former Euphoria winner Loreen with Tattoo for Sweden,  TuralTuranX, Tell Me More, representing Azerbaijan. 

Czechia’s act was Vesna with My Sister’s Crown got through, Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper with Burning Daylight representing Netherlands and Eurovision favourite Käärijä did the Cha Cha Cha for Finland. 

Rita Ora performed a medley while X Factor’s Rebecca Ferguson also sang to the audience.  

The newly-crowned King and Queen made a surprise appearance on the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in a little cameo on BBC One.

Royal fans were delighted to see King Charles, 74, and Queen Camilla, 75, appearing in a pre-recorded video as the semi-finals kicked off in Liverpool this evening.

The royals featured in the opening credits, in a Welcome to Liverpool film which followed a young boy from the north-west city who learned his hometown is hosting the 2023 Contest.

Their Majesties made the cameo on the first night of the semi-finals, just weeks after they attended the M&S Bank Arena to officially open the stage for this year’s competition.

Also featured in the opening sequence is the late Paul O’Grady, who suddenly passed away last month at the age of 67.

Paul, who shot to fame as trailblazing comic drag act Lily Savage before becoming one of the country’s best-loved presenters and DJs, tragically passed away in March aged 67. 

But the TV favourite was remembered when he appeared with his beloved dog in a segment celebrating Liverpool, where this year’s competition is taking place.

Paul starred in the video alongside Paul Hollywood, Ukranian Strictly dancer Nikita Kuzmin and King Charles and the Queen Consort.  

Viewers watching at home became emotional when they saw Paul on their TV screens once more, smiling broadly whilst he mopped the floor with his pooch in the other arm. 

One wrote: ‘A gorgeous little nod to the great and utterly fabulous Paul O’Grady in the opening titles to Eurovision.’ 

‘So lovely to see Paul O’Grady in that opening and what an opening trailer that was. Amazing to see the King and Queen in it too and of course Ukraine the key part of it all,’ another fan added. 

‘Seeing Paul O’Grady was very touching,’ a different viewer chimed, while others said they were ‘sobbing already’. 

‘Paul O’Grady and kids in tracksuits holding hands. Sobbing already,’ one wrote. 

‘Paul O’Grady in the opening sequence I’m crying’, added another viewer. 

The Eurovision semi-finals will take place across two days and feature an array of performances, including from Eurovision legends and Ukrainian and British stars. 

For the first time in the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest history, both semi-finals are being presented live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. 

Radio DJs Scott Mills and Rylan will bring UK audiences their colourful commentary, while Alesha, Julia and Hannah host.

And Alesha sent Eurovision fans wild as she harked back to her Mis-Teeq days by performing a rap about the competition. 

The Britain’s Got Talent judge, 44, was branded an ‘icon’ by viewers – who were equally impressed by the sign language interpreter kept up with her. 

Alesha hosted the first semi-final alongside Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham, which will see five acts sent home at the end of the show. 

The songstress looked incredible in red bow crop top which teased a glimpse of her toned stomach and voluminous hot pink trousers. 

As the host rapped while presenting a segment, viewers took to Twitter to comment on the surprise performance.  

‘Alesha Dixon is rapping really quickly and Woman 3 is keeping up with every word. She’s an icon,’ one wrote. 

Another added: ‘Honestly the first semifinal has been on for 30 minutes and it’s already iconic and so gorgeously done. Hannah Waddingham speaking French: sexy Alesha Dixon rapping: iconic Paul O’Grady in the intro: sobbing.’

While a third viewer chimed: ‘Oh, Alesha’s still got it. I’d forgotten her rapping in Mis-Teeq.’ 

‘Alesha Dixon rapping is peak Eurovision craziness,’ said another. ‘I’m so confused why is Alesha Dixon rapping’, typed a different fan. 

There is also a special commentary team on BBC Radio Merseyside, which will include Claire Sweeney and the winner of The Voice of Eurovision talent search, which is currently underway to discover new Liverpudlian talent.

This year’s Eurovision Grand Final has the Royal seal of approval. During a visit to the venue, the Liverpool Arena, the King told the UK entrant Mae Muller that he would be ‘watching with great interest’ and ‘egging her on’. ‘Thank you. No pressure,’ she joked.

At last year’s contest, held in Italy, the UK fielded its strongest entry for years with Sam Ryder‘s Space Man, but no one begrudged the Ukrainians their victory with Kalush Orchestra’s ebullient Stefania.

For the grand final commentary on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, Graham and comedian Mel Giedroyc will take turns in the commentary box to bring those watching at home their unique and expert views on the 2023 acts. 

Eurovision Semi-Final Part Two will take place on Thursday, on BBC One at 8pm.