AFTER losing her dad to multiple strokes, Gloria Hunniford was terrified history was repeating itself when her husband suffered one years later.
The 83-year-old Loose Women panellist’s husband Stephen Way, 78, had his second stroke earlier this year, leaving him partially blind.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Gloria has opened up about how scared she was, and how she doesn’t think Stephen would still be here were it not for the fast-acting NHS service she received.
Tearfully, she said: “I just want to thank the A&E department and the dedicated stroke department that they have there for all their care and attention because they saved his life.”
TV legend Gloria is praising the stroke unit at Pembury Hospital and says she would have nominated them for a Who Cares Wins Award a decade ago, had the awards existed.
She is urging YOU to nominate your health heroes before July 31st when the form closes so amazing medics and support staff can be shortlisted.
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To submit an entry, the medical event must have happened within the last year.
Those selected by judges will be invited to a glitzy awards bash in September with a host of celebrities.
Stephen, who married Gloria in 1998, had his first stroke in 2012, which left her worried she might lose him forever.
The TV presenter was just about to head out to film Loose Women, when Stephen “came hobbling into the bedroom” from the garden.
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“He said his arm and leg felt a bit like cotton wool and he had no control over it,” she recalls.
While many people may have waited for the symptoms to potentially get better or worse, Gloria immediately called her GP.
Race to the hospital
She knew that acting quickly would make all the difference, having watched her dad, Charles Hunniford, suffer eight strokes before he died in 1979.
The GP told her to get Stephen to hospital as quickly as possible, and they jumped in the car that had been waiting to take her to the studio, and headed to Pembury Hospital near Tunbridge Wells.
As they were rushed through to the dedicated stroke unit, Gloria recalls being angry at a doctor continually asking, “How long ago did he have the stroke?”
She explains: “I was just desperate for somebody to do something, give him tablets, do anything!
“All I was thinking was, ‘Stop asking me how long ago it was, I can’t think!’”
But the reason for the question was exceptionally relevant and was, Gloria believes, the reason Stephen is still fit and healthy today.
Due to being rushed straight to hospital, Stephen was able to have a clot busting injection – which can only be given to patients in the first three hours after they’ve had a stroke.
She says: “Because the A&E were very efficient and quick, Stephen was able to have that injection.
“The scary thing is the doctor told us the injection can kill you, and Stephen had to give his permission to have it.
“He was in a state with the Sister who was monitoring his counts, and she just looked at me and said, ‘He has to have it,’ because the count was going up all the time.
“So he said to me, ‘What do you think? What would you do?’ and I said, ‘I think I'd have it as it would give me a better chance,’ and so he had it.
“And thank God it saved his life.”
Wonderful care from nurses
Following the injection, Stephen was transferred onto a ward at Pembury Hospital, where he stayed for “the best part of a week”.
Gloria says: “He had wonderful care there.
“What was quite extraordinary was when he was on the bed initially, one arm was useless, and the leg was beginning to be useless.
“But, by the end of the week in hospital, under supervision and different tablets to thin the blood, apart from being obviously a bit weak and stunned by the experience, he never looked back!”
The staff at the hospital quickly taught Stephen how to walk again, and within 36 hours, he began to have normal use of his legs.
“They were just so good in the hospital,” Gloria says. “They were so diligent, so caring and so constructive, so much so that I wrote to the administrator and told them their care was life-saving and life-changing.”
Stephen has spent a lot of time in hospital over the last decade after suffering a car accident in 2019, which left the base of his spine fractured.
Previously, in 2004, he suffered a heart attack.
Terrifying second stroke
Devastatingly for the couple, he suffered a second stroke earlier this year, which has left him with poor vision – which is not expected to return.
He recently said: “I woke up in the morning and there was blood in the eye and that was it. I can see a little but not that good.”
But, aside from that, Stephen’s just as fit and healthy as he was before his first stroke – and his personality hasn’t changed either, something Gloria confesses she was looking out for.
She says: “Strokes do change people's personalities sometimes depending on the strength of it, and in my dad's case, it did change his personality a bit. He got a lot more impatient.
“But it didn't with Steven, funnily enough!”
And Gloria’s even more grateful for how Pembury dealt with Stephen now, having recently seen a friend have a less fortunate experience after they suffered a stroke.
“The doctor said to them, ‘Oh, just take it easy tonight. We'll have a look at you again in the morning,’ but in the morning it was too late,” she says.
“They couldn't give the clot busting injection, and so this particular gentleman can't walk properly.
“He's on a walker or in a wheelchair.
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“So I’m so grateful, and so is Stephen, that he had such good care at Pembury.
“I just want to thank the A&E department and the dedicated stroke department that they have there for all their care and attention because they saved his life.”
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