A 90s pop favourite has spoken about his battle with steroid abuse.

Right Said Fred singer Richard Fairbrass remembered lining up bottom-to-bottom with other gym bunnies in the early 1990s, waiting for a man to inject them with steroids.

The I’m Too Sexy hitmaker, who famously sang of “shaking my tush on the catwalk”, said: “One guy with a needle would do maybe four or five guys in the bum.”

His comments came as he celebrated the sixth anniversary of a Swindon project aimed at supporting those whose lives have been touched by potentially life-threatening condition Hepatitis C.

Set up by former Right Said Fred session bassist Phil Spalding in 2011, the Hep C Positive project has since found fame around the country.

A blood-borne virus, Hepatitis C can be spread in a number of ways – most commonly through infected blood transfusions or the sharing of syringe needles.

While conditions like HIV/AIDs have received much attention over the years, Hepatitis C has remained a more invisible problem.

Right Said Fred’s Richard, now 64, said: “Nobody knew about it. Nobody ever said anything to me about the transference of Hepatitis C.”

The virus can cause fatal damage to the liver and in severe cases untreated patients might eventually develop liver cancer.

Modern treatments are almost 100 per cent effective in curing people of the disease. But the course of tablets, which cost around £30,000, can currently only be administered by doctors at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital – leaving vulnerable patients facing lengthy car journeys.

Organiser Phil Spalding, who believes he developed the condition during a 30 year drug addiction fight, estimates that at least 2,000 people across Swindon could be living with the condition. But only a fraction of them will have been diagnosed.

He set up the Hep C Positive group after going through treatment himself, realising that few knew about the condition.

Phil, 59, said: “One of the very first things we needed to do was educate people and we could do that by having a group where people could come without feeling ashamed, meet like-minded people and realise they weren’t alone with the condition.”

The group now meets every Monday evening at the Broadgreen Community Centre. Initially sponsored by Swindon Borough Council, it now receives support from charity Liver 4 Life.

On Monday, to celebrate Hep C Positive’s sixth anniversary, the group was joined by Right Said Fred’s Richard and Oxford expert Professor Paul Klenerman.

The Oxford prof warned that the condition could often have similar symptoms to chronic fatigue.

“Most of the damage is done without you feeling anything,” said Prof Kleneman.

But, with the new tablets used to treat the condition, there was now a cure that will work for almost all. “It doesn’t matter how bad the disease is,” he said.

Prof Kleneman added that his colleagues at Oxford and in the United States are currently working on a Hep C vaccination.

For more about Hep C Positive, visit: www.hepcpositive.org.uk.