The former Tory minister and Strictly Come Dancing contestant has revealed she’d to go to A&E after taking a tumble in her bathroom while trying to save a mouse
Reform UK’s Ann Widdecombe ended up in hospital after injuring herself as she rescued a mouse from her pet cat. The former Tory minister had to be treated in A&E after slipping on a bathroom mat.
She praised doctors and nurses for their treatment giving them a “big shout-out”. Widdecombe, 78, who has been Reform’s Immigration and Justice spokesperson since 2023, described her ordeal in a column for a magazine.
The 2010 Strictly Come Dancing contestant said: “Between Christmas and New Year, I had a fall on my bathroom tiles as I tried to rescue a mouse from my cat. Mice have no sense.
“Having found a place of refuge, instead of staying in it, they dart out again. No wonder cats find them so entertaining to pursue.
“Anyway, my visiting sister-in-law and I chased the wretched rodent around until we cornered it, but not before I had slipped on a mat and crashed down. I got up and put the mouse outside. It ran gaily off. I did not.
“The next day, I could hardly walk. Eventually, I gave in and went to A&E. The sayings ‘small is beautiful’ and ‘all the best things come in little packages’ have largely held true throughout my life.
“Of course, there are exceptions. I never did take to nouvelle cuisine with its tiny heap of food sitting in the middle of a plate, looking pleased with itself because it was surrounded by some sauce, grandly named a coulis.
“I can also remember muttering every day in my first flat, ‘If only I had just one more room.’ With the NHS, however, small is beautiful, personal and super-efficient.”
Widdecombe was treated in Newton Abbot Community Hospital in Devon. She said it had been years since she last visited A&E.
She wrote in Best magazine: “Until this visit, my only experience of A&E was of a large London teaching hospital when I was making a documentary for television and of visiting the principal hospital in my constituency.
“Long queues, dunks, harassed staff, serious pressure.” Ann’s said he A&E trip was the opposite, and she lauded Newton Abbot Community Hospital’s staff for getting her “examined, X-rayed, briefed and discharged” quickly.
The Celebrity Big Brother 2018 runner-up said: “So a big shout-out for Newton Abbot Community Hospital. There were all of 19 people waiting. The staff were relaxed, cheerful and gave you the impression that they could listen to you all day.
“Within three hours of arrival, I had been examined, X-rayed, briefed and discharged with all the necessary information. Nothing was too much trouble. Nothing was rushed.”