Mary Berry opens up on potentially fatal health ordeal that left her unable to use legs

Mary Berry opened up about suffering from a potentially deadly illness as a teenager (Image: Getty)

Former Great British Bake Off judge Dame Mary Berry has revealed how she lost the ability to walk after suffering from a potentially fatal illness when she was younger.

Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with host and ex-Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth, she recalled how she had to be taken to hospital after falling ill with polio as a teenager.

She said: "He came (the doctor) and said 'I think she should go to the isolation hospital, I was put in the car and taken to the isolation hospital where I was put in a room that had glass either side and a bed."

Mary added: "I couldn't walk and I was just carried into the bed and I thought 'what's wrong with me?' And then, my parents couldn't come in because I was infectious and I could see mum and dad at the other side of the glass and I couldn't lift my head or anything."

Mary Berry reflected on her life as she chatted to Gyles Brandreth (Image: Getty)

As she continued to reflect on the difficult period in her life, the ex-Bake Off judge revealed how she discovered that she had polio: "And I had a cup with a spout to drink form and so I asked the nurse 'What is wrong with me? Why can't I move? and she looked at the end of the bed and picked up the clip and said 'you've got infantile paralysis'."

After a wretched time spent in hospital, she finally managed to recover from the condition, as she said: "I was so blessed, because I got better and better, but not with any drugs or anything."

Despite coming through the illness relatively unscathed, there is one aspect of the condition that has stayed with her in the years since: "I've just got a funny hand, if I'm cooking on television now, I get people saying: 'this is what you should do for it' thinking that it's arthritis."

She jokinkgly quipped "It means I don't have to dance."

While the chances of contracting polio remain exceptionally small in the UK at the moment thanks to the widespread vaccination programme, the NHS have said that most won't display any symptoms, but those that do usually have flu-like reactions to the illness.

Symptoms include; a high temperature, extreme tiredness (fatigue), headaches, being sick (vomiting), a stiff neck and muscle pain.

Polio is extremely rare in UK travellers with the last imported case occurring in 1993.