Diphtheria At Cuddington

A Memory of Nork.

Sometime during the autumn of 1945 our neighbour, who lived in The Oval, Banstead, comforted a Canadian woman she saw crying in High Street. That woman had flown over to visit her airman husband who was in Cuddington Isolation Hospital with diphtheria. Guess what ... my neighbour's daughter caught diphtheria - or, at least, it was said that she was a carrier. She was in Cuddington for a few weeks and came home in time for Christmas. Between Christmas and New Year, I felt unwell and my mother took us to the cinema in Sutton to cheer me up. I remember it was a Judy Garland film and I was 10. Little did we realize that I too had diphtheria. I was taken to Cuddington and stayed there until the end of March 1946. Initially my parents were allowed into a room where I was alone - they had to cover themselves in white suits. I was then transferred to the main ward. I had to lie flat until my swabs were clear. It was so painful to put my legs out of bed. Almost immediately I was giving a skipping rope and told to go outside and skip. I was not supervised at all. As this was just after the war, food was extremely frugal - sometimes just a jam sandwich and, for the older children, mashed potato in gravy. When I was in there I was woken one night by some adults crying. A girl about my age had been brought in but had died almost immediately - she had been in the bed opposite me. I was very frightened, but in those days no-one explained anything or gave any comfort. I heard that she came from Sutton. All my life I have wondered if I passed on diphtheria when I was in the cinema. I was very lucky.