TV legend Gloria Hunniford has told how she is now back at work following a health scare that involved being rushed to A&E by ambulance.
The Rip Off Britain star discovered she had kidney stones just before Christmas.
She had an operation to blast the stones and put a stent in, then a second one to remove it three weeks later.
But after the first op, when kidney stones were removed under general anaesthetic, she began to feel unwell.
She said of the second surgery: “The last thing they said before I went to theatre was: ‘When I take this stent out you are going to feel so much better.
“But the next thing I knew coming out of the anaesthetic, was a nurse saying to me, ‘Don’t worry, don’t panic but we are having to transfer you by ambulance to a different hospital because we can’t get your blood pressure up’.”
They sent Gloria, 82, from the hospital in Maidstone, Kent, to a nearby A&E.
She said: “It was like somebody had put a tap in my body and just drained all the energy.” Doctors later told her that she had sepsis of the kidney.
She added: “Thankfully it hadn’t gone beyond the kidney.
“I guess that’s why I felt so awful and it did flatten me for a while.”
Slowly but surely, Gloria regained her fitness. She mainly “rested and slept”, although she lost her appetite and had low energy.
She said: “Medical professionals said it could take up to six months to return to what one would deem normality after two anaesthetics so close together.”
But with a positive attitude, Gloria was back within weeks.
She said: “I set myself little tasks and my [husband] Stephen was marvellous. He was chief cook and bottle-washer and my whole wonderful family rallied round”.
Currently, Gloria says she has about “98%” of her energy levels back. The ordeal has only strengthened her resolve to be able to cope with whatever life throws at her.
“We all know that stuff will be thrown at you and it’s how you deal with things,” she says. Of her daughter who died aged 41 in 2004, she added: “In my case I lost Caron. Particularly then, I thought I’d never get out of that. But attitude and learning from other people got me through.”
In the meantime, Gloria is back as a Loose Women panellist and starring in BBC series B&B By the Sea in April. In May she is back with the popular Rip Off Britain.
Gloria said: “Everybody is worried about the cost of living so we have never been more relevant.
“We will definitely be going more heavy on energy and scams and horrendous housing conditions.”
