EastEnder Barbara Windsor: I've never forgotten the kindness of nurses at GOSH

Actress recalls her time as a young patient in Great Ormond Street Hospital as she backs our Christmas appeal
Full recovery: EastEnders actress, 78, was treated for rheumatism when she was a girl

Barbara Windsor today told of her time as a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital as she became the latest star to back our Christmas appeal.

The EastEnders actress, 78, was treated for rheumatism when she was a girl and said she has never forgotten the kindness of the hospital staff.

On Monday she called on Evening Standard readers to donate all they can to the “extraordinary” hospital through the Give to GOSH appeal.

She said: “It holds a special place in my heart, and the same is true for the hundreds of thousands of families it has supported over the years, so please give generously.”

Windsor, who was born in east London, was eight or nine years old when she was taken to GOSH after complaining of “toothache” in her legs — because that was the only way she could describe the pain she felt.

“My local doctor couldn’t work out what was wrong so decided to send me to Great Ormond Street Hospital,” she said. “That’s just what happened, back then and still to this day.

"If they can’t fix you, they send you to GOSH. People think of it as magical place that makes things better.

“I remember getting two buses to GOSH, which should have felt like an adventure, but when you’re a child you go to places like hospital with fear and trepidation.

"I remember walking up to the hospital thinking, ‘What is this strange place?’ The buildings were harsher-looking back then and it was very frightening for me, but by the time I left I was bouncing around as happy as anything because everybody in there was so amazing.

"They discovered I had rheumatism in my leg, which is all fine now, and luckily I was able to go home the same day, but the kindness they showed me in that time has stayed with me.”

She said the kindness of one particular nurse has remained in her memory, adding: “I will never forget them coming along with medicine for me to take and one of the nurses said she thought she could make it taste better. She went away and put some jam on it and that has always stuck in my mind.

“At the time I thought what a nice lady she was, but as I’ve got older I’ve realised that she really took the time to think about me. Maybe they did that for everyone, but I felt incredibly special and she made it feel like I was a very important little girl.

“Back then it was a dollop of jam, but now they have toys, clowns and all sorts of entertainment to help the medicine go down. It’s just such a wonderful place and I’m always happy to help GOSH because they helped me.”

Where will your money go?

  • Funding the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care, for patients who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions
  • Supporting the creation of a new specialist unit helping children with heart failure to stay well while they wait for a heart transplant
  • Funding research programmes, which aim to find new cures and treatments for children with rare diseases
  • Funding the patient and family support programme at the hospital, including a dedicated play team which designs activities for children to aid their treatment, recovery and understanding of their illness. It also funds a wide range of other support, all helping to make life as “normal” as possible for families while children are in hospital, often for weeks or months at a time

As an Arsenal fan, Barbara visited the hospital with the team when GOSH was the club’s chosen charity of the season in 2009/10. Her support comes after David Beckham and Johnny Depp both endorsed the appeal.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in