Fury of Bucks Fizz Cheryl as hospital superbug kills her mother-in-law

Cheryl, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 and continues to pursue a glamorous career on London's West End stage, has been thrown into turmoil by the death of Doreen Ford, the stepmother of her husband.

Doreen, 77, contracted Clostridium difficile at Maidstone hospital in Kent, where the superbug has claimed at least eight patients' lives. Some claim the true total is 20.

"Maidstone hospital has to get rid of it before more people die," said an angry Cheryl last night. "For all we know, there are already more people in there right now dying of C.Diff."

Her anger is widely shared. Bereaved relatives of C.Diff victims at Maidstone hospital plan to lobby Parliament on November 22. And Ann Widdecombe, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald, has said: "I wouldn't put my mother in Maidstone hospital."

Cheryl, currently starring in the musical Footloose, was speaking in the kitchen of the secluded Kent home she shares with her husband Steve Stroud and their twin 12-year-old girls. Doreen had lived in their separate guesthouse for the past ten years.

"She was a great mate," said Cheryl. Doreen had been suffering from breast cancer bout after three months of gruelling treatment, was optimistic her visits to Maidstone for chemotherapy were defeating the illness. Then disaster struck.

"Five or six weeks ago, she picked up the C.Diff bug," says Cheryl, 50. "She was put in an isolation ward in the oncology unit. They zapped her with antibiotics and she came home. A week later, the infection returned. She had to keep going in and out of hospital.

"On Friday, October 6, she told her partner Harry she felt better than for a long time. Her doctors had said they didn't think it would be necessary to have the next form of chemo.

"But on Saturday morning, Doreen collapsed. Her face was grey and drawn and we called an ambulance.

"The next day, Harry went to see her in hospital. I thought she'd just have antibiotics again and return home. But that evening the hospital called Harry, saying he'd better come in as she had taken a turn for the worse.

"Steve took Harry to the hospital, only to be told by a nurse Doreen had passed away an hour earlier.

"The hospital said she died from septicaemia caused by C.Diff. They said it was a superbug and gave us a leaflet. I asked how she could die of a bug in hospital. I know Maidstone is not the only one with the bug, but something has to be done. It's being swept under the carpet.

"I can't prove she caught the bug there, but we know C.Diff only exists in hospitals and Maidstone was the only hospital she had been to."

A spokesperson for Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: "The trust has taken a wide range of measures to combat C.Diff and ensure patients are seen in safety.

"Cases of the infection have fallen markedly as a result. C.Diff is a national issue we are tackling locally. Levels of the infection are generally no higher now than similar hospitals would expect to see nationally."