Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy rush their daughter to hospital on holiday in 'terrifying' meningitis scare
25 April 2023, 16:14 | Updated: 25 April 2023, 16:16
Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy have told of the "terrifying" time they had to rush their child to hospital while they were on holiday.
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Speaking on their podcast, The Therapy Crouch, the married couple opened up about the meningitis scare their eldest child suffered while the family was on holiday in Portugal.
Julia, 12, came down with the sometimes-deadly virus, which inflames the layers of tissue that cover the brain and spinal cord.
Meningitis can be deadly or cause long-term after effects if it is not treated quickly, so it was a race against time to get Julia to the hospital.
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Abbey, 37, said: "The school holidays have been tough.
"We got to Portugal and Sophia was in hospital with meningitis which was just the scariest thing on earth.
"Being in a foreign hospital, language barriers, the words like meningitis being thrown around, lumbar punctures, brain scans.
"It was horrific - I felt so vulnerable - and scary. But I must say the medical care over there was just out of this world."
The couple, who have four children, were left even more scared when their youngest son Jack started coughing. The other two children also started coughing later.
Abbey added: "These things always happen on a Sunday at one o'clock in the morning, just to add to that fear and that scariness of the situation. It can never be a normal hour," she joked of the hospital dash."
"With Sophia I just knew something was wrong, like it wasn't like a normal bug. I was going to Pete 'it's meningitis', and it was. I actually couldn't believe it.
"So then having three babies at home I was thinking 'what if they catch it?' We were on like high alert. We didn't sleep at all. I was watching every child like a hawk. It was just terrifying."
"Sophia was out the hospital and we were back in the hospital with them because I was thinking 'I've got three other children, can they catch this viral meningitis?' It was traumatic," Abbey said.
"I think we had four hours sleep in like 30 hours… I've never been so scared in my life."
Peter added: "That was just because we were so worried about Sophia, when [Jack] started coughing we felt like we had to take him."
Abbey said: "We got home from Portugal all exhausted. Then get into bed, everyone's asleep and then Liberty comes in and goes 'Mum, dad, I feel like I've got the vomiting bug'.
"And Pete went 'f**k this, I can't be arsed with this'. And he just stood up and walked out the room and went into another bedroom."
Peter said: "I was like 'I'm out now, I'm just not doing this any more'. I went to a different bed and shut the door and turned the light off. I washed my hands of it.
"I couldn't do any more. Sometimes you've got to tap out."
