BBC F1 presenter Jennie Gow, 46, breaks down in tears as her husband reveals how he found her collapsed on the floor after a COUGH triggered a stroke – telling her ‘it was the worst moment of my life’
BBC Formula One presenter Jennie Gow broke down on The One Show on Monday as her husband described the moment he discovered her collapsed on the bathroom floor of their home having had ‘a serious stroke’.
Gow, 46, who had previously travelled the world for her broadcasting job in motorsport, revealed in January that she’d been left unable to speak or write following the devastating brain bleed – caused by coughing when she developed a viral infection.
In her first interview, the reporter broke down as she listened to husband Jamie tell her how finding her after the stroke was ‘the worst moment’ of his life.
In the film, Jamie tells her: ‘I was trying to call your name and get you to speak to me and I was just getting nothing back from you.’
Speaking on BBC One’s The One Show this week, Jennie Gow, 46, discussed with her husband Jamie the moment she suffered a stroke and collapsed on the bathroom floor at their London home
She asks him: ‘Were you feeling scared?’ to which he replied: ‘It was the worst moment of my life’ before detailing how the couple’s six-year-old daughter Isobel helped him get Gow comfortable and passed her father his phone to call an ambulance.
The broadcaster, who also regularly appeared on the Netflix series Drive to Survive, was treated swiftly at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey and St Geroge’s Hospital in West London.
Jennie’s husband described finding her on the bathroom floor of their home as ‘the worst moment of my life’
In the video, Gow also meets Dr Thomas Pain, a consultant specialising in strokes at Frimley Park Hospital, who explained that a tear in a blood vessel in her neck – caused by vigorous coughing – had resulted in a clot travelling up to her brain, causing a bleed on the left side of it.
The right side of her body was impacted by the stroke and she was transferred to a specialist unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, to have the blood clot removed.
In the moving footage, Jamie reveals he told her to ‘fight’ to recover for him and for Isobel.
Jamie told her that their daughter Isobel, six, had been a superstar, helping him call an ambulance
Jennie has been a permanent fixture in Formula One coverage since 2012
Pictured before her stroke with husband Jamie; the pair opened up about how Jennie’s illness affected them both in The One Show film
Revealing how her speech finally began to return, she said a nurse had made her angry, encouraging her to keep trying to find her voice again – saying she could only make ‘scratchy, horrible’ sounds at first.
Months of recovery have followed, with Gow saying she’s lost her sense of taste and still feels numb down one side of her body.
She told the programme that she wanted to speak out to try and help other stroke survivors.
Until the stroke hit, Gow had been a permanent fixture in Formula One coverage since 2012, covering the sport of BBC Radio 5 Live.
Before that, she covered the BBC’s MotoGP coverage, having joined the broadcasting company in 1999. Gow is also a commentator on racing series Extreme E.
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