This Morning star Sharon Marshall has revealed for the first time how her complex hay fever was misdiagnosed as adult asthma, leading to a terrifying collapse and a rush to hospital amid fears of cardiac arrest.
The 54-year-old soap expert, speaking on the ITV show alongside Professor Adam Fox, described how she woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. Initially dismissing symptoms as being unfit while training for a marathon, she later collapsed in a doctor's surgery and came round in an ambulance.
Marshall recalled: 'I said, "Oh what's happening" and they said, "we're taking you to hospital" and my first reaction was, "will I be going back" and I they said, "No probably not" and I said, "well can I just go by the house and feed my cat". And this lovely guy who was just saying: "You're going into cardiac arrest, we're trying to take you into hospital to save your life no you can't feed your cat."'
She spent a week in hospital and was initially diagnosed with adult-onset asthma, but continued to suffer severe breathlessness every spring. At one point, doctors tested her for lung cancer. Marshall revealed that a visit to the This Morning studios proved pivotal: while having her makeup done, she struggled to breathe, prompting medics to be called. Professor Fox, who was in the studio for an item on allergies, identified the seasonal pattern and correctly diagnosed severe hay fever.
