Harpenden resident Barbara Gray came face-to-face with a television legend during a recent stay in The Hospice of St Francis.

Former news presenter Angela Rippon spent over half an hour in the patient lounge chatting to Barbara, 69, a former business manager and hospital radio volunteer, who is having a short stay at the Berkhamsted hospice to help with symptom control for uterine cancer, which has now spread to her spine and liver.

Mother-of-two Barbara said “It was so lovely to spend time with Angela. She was charming, intelligent and sophisticated – everything I expected her to be. We chatted about our life experiences and stories and, of course, my care here. I told her how wonderful the staff are, nothing is too much trouble and they’ve gone out of their way to look after me, controlling my pain, offering me reflexology to putting on a special tea party for 12 to celebrate my grandson Raef’s seventh birthday. The Hospice has made such a difference to me and I’m now looking forward to going home.”

Angela went on to speak at the Hospice’s AGM about dementia, discussing her mother Edna’s diagnosis and how her experience of the disease led her to become an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society.