Prue Leith was rushed to hospital in ambulance amid fears she was having a stroke

Former Bake Off judge Prue Leith has revealed she was recently rushed to hospital after she was left unable to speak and her husband worried she was having a stroke

Dame Prue Leith has revealed she was rushed to hospital last month amid fears she was having a stroke.

The former Great British Bake Off judge, 86, who will celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary with John Playfair in October, suffered a “migraine attack” but was unable to speak, so her husband became convinced she was having a stroke and raised the alarm.

Writing in her Prue’s News column for the upcoming edition of The Oldie, Prue said: “A few weeks ago, staying in Yorkshire, I had a migraine attack. It followed a familiar path. First, I can see only half of whatever I’m looking at.

“This is speedily followed by a bright circle of flickering, coloured lights in the upper right field of vision. I don’t swiftly swallow one of my migraine ‘bombs’ (three pills: paracetamol, ibuprofen and sumatriptan), a crashing headache will follow.”

In quotes published by The Sun she said: “This time, my incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words convinced John I was having a stroke. I tried to tell him it was just a migraine, but I couldn’t string two words together.”

Prue then explained that even though she could in fact raise her right arm and her face was not drooping, both of which are symptoms used to check for a stroke, the operator that John spoke to decided to send an ambulance and she soon found herself at Harrogate Hospital.

The TV star then explained that what followed was a six-hour wait in A&E and after eventually undergoing a CT scan at midnight, she was released at two o’clock in the morning.

She then concluded her column by noting that whilst she “knew all along” that she was having a migraine, but because loss of speech is a major symptom of a stroke, it was better “safe than sorry” in this case.

Prue, who appeared as a judge on Bake Off for for almost a decade but announced her departure earlier this year, also recalled that she suffered her first migraine at the age of nine.

She explained that, at the time, her speech went “bananas” and she suddenly said “I want fish!”

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