TV presenter Gloria Hunniford once shared that she “felt so awful” amid a life-threatening health issue. Following the experience in her eighties, she revealed that it had caused her to worry about ageing for the first time in her life.
Gloria, now 85 – who will be seen competing on the Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2C tomorrow – has spoken about her health over the years. It includes her sharing two years ago that she had been “quite sick” over Christmas in 2022.
The Loose Women panelist revealed at the time that she had kidney stones and required two surgeries. According to the NHS, the health issue can involve having symptoms such as abdominal pain, a high temperature and nausea.
Gloria shared that doctors informed her at the time that she had also had sepsis of the kidney. She said that “thankfully” sepsis – which the NHS describes as a “life-threatening reaction to an infection” – had not gone beyond the organ.
She recalled her experience with kidney stones and sepsis whilst speaking to the Mirror for an interview published in March 2023, just months after she was ill. It was revealed that she’d been rushed to A&E by ambulance at one point.
After discovering that she had the kidney stones just before Christmas the previous year, Gloria had an operation to blast them and put a stent in. It was reported that she then had a second operation three weeks later to remove that.
Following the first procedure – in which the stones were removed under general anaesthetic – Gloria began to feel unwell. She shared that news of sepsis and an issue with her blood pressure then came amid the second procedure.
Speaking about the second surgery, she said two years ago: “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’.”
Gloria – who was sent from the hospital in Maidstone to a nearby A&E department – shared that she felt “drained” of energy. She told the Mirror: “It was like somebody had put a tap in my body and just drained all the energy.”
It was revealed in the interview that doctors later told Gloria that she had sepsis of the kidney. Speaking about that, she said: “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.”
The Rip Off Britain regained her fitness over time, sharing that she primarily “rested and slept” whilst she recovered. She’s said to have lost her appetite and had low energy after being told it could take months to return to “normality”.
Gloria 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.” She said that she set herself “little tasks” and that her late husband Stephen Wray – who died last year – was “marvellous” whilst she recovered.
Two months before the interview, Gloria had spoken about the impact of the experience on Loose Women in January 2023. She announced that she’d had kidney stones on the ITV show and suggested that amid the experience she had worried about ageing for the first time in her life.
In a discussion about ageing and retirement, Gloria revealed to viewers: “I was quite sick all over the Christmas period with kidney stones.” She added: “It’s the first time in my life … because I try never to think of age and I haven’t been anxious about it because I’m still doing what I was doing when I was 20 and 30 … but it was the first time ever I sat in that chair watching TV [and] I thought to myself ‘is this what it’s going to be like?’ But do you know what? I forgot about it quite quickly and came back to work.”
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