Prue Leith is speaking out after a recent hospitalization.
The 86-year-old The Great British Baking Show judge and chef opened up about an experiencing a “migraine attack” that prompted her doctor to call an ambulance over fears she was having a stroke.
Prue recalled the experience, which occurred when she was in Yorkshire, England, in a column called “Prue’s News” in The Oldie‘s September issue, excerpted by The Sun.
She wrote about her lifelong battles with migraines, recalling that she had her first migraine when she was 9-years-old, and it impacted her speech.
Prue explained that during a migraine, she needs to “swiftly swallow” what she calls a migraine “bomb,” including paracetamol, ibuprofen and sumatriptan.
She said that the symptoms of the recent attack were “familiar,” including only being able to see half of her field of vision, and seeing a bright circle of lights in her upper right field of vision.
“This time, my incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words convinced John [Playfair, Leith’s husband] I was having a stroke,” Prue wrote. “I tried to tell him it was just a migraine, but I couldn’t string two words together.”
Her doctor confirmed that she could raise her arms and make a fist, before ensuring that nothing was hurting and that her face wasn’t drooping on one side. However, Prue said “in spite of” these answers, the doctor still ordered an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
“In spite of my assuring him (I’d recovered coherent speech by then) that it was a migraine, he decided on a CT scan,” she wrote. “Two hours later, I had one, waited another hour for the results, and was released at 2am.”
She then praised the medical team at the hospital that treated her.
“The doctor took the trouble to access my NHS records. He explained why he wanted to refer me for a brain scan, just to be sure (people of my age, 86, are prone to mini-strokes),” Prue wrote. “I knew all along that all I had was a migraine. But since the speech problem is a classic symptom of a stroke, and my extreme old age being a time when mini-strokes are common, everyone was determined to be safe not sorry.”
“The NHS personnel are all cheerful, sympathetic, polite, helpful and professional,” she wrote. “You may have to wait forever, but when it is your turn, you are treated as if you were the only patient in A&E.”
Earlier this year, Prue announced she was leaving The Great British Baking Show. Read her statement.
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