Olympic champion Lewis tells of ‘scary’ experience of miscarriage

OLYMPIC GOLD medallist Denise Lewis has spoken about the moment she suffered a miscarriage while at home with her children.

The 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion, 46, inset, who is expecting her fourth child later this year, told Hello! magazine about her “very, very scary experience” from three years ago when she says she miscarried at 12 weeks.

She told how she was at home with two of her children – Lauryn and Kane – while her third, Ryan, was out with her husband, Steve Finan O’Connor.

Lewis, who won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said: “I was in the bathroom and bleeding heavily and I was worried I was going to pass out. Steve was with Ryan at a school rugby match and I was home alone with Lauryn and Kane. “I had to prepare Lauryn and talk her through what might happen and try to shield her away. I could feel myself going tingly and cold. I felt I was going because I was losing so much blood. “I gave Lauryn a number for a school-mum friend whose neighbour was a doctor and she came and waited with me for the ambulance. All I can remember from that day was thinking: ‘The kids are on their own and I’m going to be passed out on the floor.’” She revealed on Twitter in July that she was expecting again, and told Hello! that she had thought she was pre-menopausal before finding out she was pregnant.

Lewis said: “I really wasn’t well – feeling feverish then cold – so I went to the doctor to find out if I had flu and they did a blood test. I thought: ‘Okay, this is it. I’m pre-menopausal.’ Then Steve said: ‘Are you sure you’re not pregnant?’ ‘Hmm, I didn’t think of that; let’s check.’ Then: ‘Oh my goodness – it is possible’.”

The retired athlete, who has embarked on a BBC broadcasting career, said she is on “high alert” due to her age, and added: “I asked my sonographer: ‘Am I the oldest woman you have ever scanned?’ He laughed and said: ‘Don’t be daft. I’ve had much older’. I think it’s odd the way they deal with older women, especially as a lot more are having first babies over the age of 40 now. But they have procedures to follow.” The interview is in this week’s

Hello! magazine.