Great British Bake Off legend Mary Berry is just a year away from her 90th birthday, but one very visible reminder of her childhood pain remains to this day. The TV star battled polio aged just 13, back in the days when no vaccination was available, and despite being "lucky" to have had a mild infection that mainly affected only one side of her body, one of her hands is still damaged today. The TV star recently said that its unusual appearance is often mistaken for arthritis - but that the assumption would be wrong.
Mary spent three months behind a glass screen, which separated her from her parents to avoid infection - and she still has a twisted spine and weaker left hand. "Everybody thinks I’ve got arthritis,” she told the Radio Times . “I look a bit funny when I’m rolling pastry, but I have no other difficulties whatsoever," she clarified.
Polio was rife in Britain in the 1940s and 50s and could affect the brain and nervous system, sometimes causing paralysis, which in the worst cases was permanent. Mary regards herself as "lucky," and her left hand is the only visual reminder of what she suffered. In more recent times, the BBC star suffered a broken hip after a fall in her garden back in 2021.
She had surgery and now credits croquet with getting her joint moving again and giving her a new lease on life. Despite the traumatic fall, which forced her to spend ten days in hospital, she's now healthy enough to care for her older husband, whom she's been with for almost.