Darius Campbell left in coma after drinking dirty River Thames water

Pop star Darius Campbell was left in a coma after he accidentally drank water from the River Thames while shooting a video for his charity’s new water filter.

Campbell, 37, almost died after contracting bacterial meningitis which left him bed-bound for three months.

Recalling the terrifying ordeal to the Daily Record he said: “I drank the water for the video and raised the funds but, when I went to Glasgow to see my mum for her birthday, I collapsed.

“It turned out I had a cerebral oedema where your brain swells bigger than your skull. Dad saved my life. He got me to hospital. They diagnosed it quickly.”

The singer was unaware that he had ingested unfiltered water while making the promo for Fresh2o, an organisation that aims to ensure world wide access to clean water.

He said: “I suddenly got a shock, worrying that the water filters didn’t work and that they had been sent off and that other people could have died from this.

“But other people who drank the water didn’t get sick and it was a huge relief when we found out the water filter I used was a display model without a filter.

“So, in an inadvertent way, I proved the water filter worked because the others who drank from a bottle with a filter in it, didn’t get sick.”

The ordeal happened in 2015 while his mother was undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer.

He said it didn’t feel right waking up to his mother keeping a bedside vigil when she was battling her own disease.

“As I came out of the coma, I remember my mum sitting beside the bed.

“It felt upside down and wrong because my mum was going through cancer treatment.

“Yet she was next to me with tears in her eyes telling my brother that they almost lost me.

“My illness knocked me off my feet and I was bed-bound for three months and picked up a new respect for what my parents went through.”

Campbell found fame after starring on Pop Idol.