Prue Leith was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after a migraine left her struggling to see and speak clearly.
The 86-year-old Great British Bake Off host was staying in Yorkshire when she began experiencing familiar visual symptoms.
However, her husband John Playfair became concerned when her speech turned into what she described as an “incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words”.
Writing in her Prue’s News column for the September issue of The Oldie, Prue explained: “A few weeks ago, staying in Yorkshire, I had a migraine attack.”
She said she could initially see only half of what she was looking at, before noticing flickering coloured lights in part of her field of vision.
Prue Leith sent to hospital following health scare
Prue said she tried to reassure John that she was experiencing a migraine, but could not form a coherent sentence.
“I tried to tell him it was just a migraine, but I couldn’t string two words together,” she explained.
“He rang our doctor, who asked me, could I raise my arms? Yes. Make a fist? Yes. Did anything hurt? No. Was the side of my face drooping? No.
In spite of my answers, she ordered an ambulance to take me to Harrogate Hospital.”
Prue was assessed again by ambulance staff and a nurse after arriving at A&E. She said she waited six hours to see a doctor, by which point her speech had recovered.
The doctor nevertheless arranged a CT scan to rule out a more serious cause. Prue underwent the scan two hours later and was released at 2am after waiting for the results.
Prue praises NHS staff after hospital stay
Reflecting on the experience, Prue said she had suffered migraines since childhood. Her first attack happened when she was nine and similarly affected her speech.
She also praised the NHS workers who cared for her during the lengthy hospital visit, describing them as “cheerful, sympathetic, polite, helpful and professional”.
Prue recalled that a nurse who took her blood had already been working for 10 hours because her replacement was off sick. She also said a nursing assistant found sandwiches for her and John when she became hungry.
Explaining why staff had treated the incident so cautiously, Prue wrote that speech problems can be a sign of a stroke and that mini-strokes are more common among people of her age.
She added that those caring for her were determined to be “safe not sorry”.
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