Ruthie’s tears as she’s told: You CAN visit your mum again

RUTHIE Henshall wept with joy on hearing the ‘wonderful’ news that she can finally visit her mother again.

The West End star hasn’t seen 83-year-old Gloria for a year and feared she would have to ‘watch her die through a care home window’.

From today, care homes will open up to indoor visitors after a year of cruel restrictions.

It is one of the first steps in the Government’s easing of lockdown.

However each resident will only be allowed to choose one friend or relative as a ‘named visitor’.

Hugging will remain banned, although they can hold hands.

Miss Henshall, 54, who starred in last year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, believed she would not benefit from the new guidance as her sister Abigail was designated the key visitor.

But her mother’s care home rang this weekend to say she would also be able to come as the new rules allow a second visitor as long as they provide ‘essential care’ to the resident.

Miss Henshall hasn’t touched her mother – who has Alzhiemer’s – for a year. ‘I wept when the woman told me. I just sat there weeping on the phone,’ the star said.

‘I’m going to become part of my mother’s care team, isn’t that wonderful, I get to see my mummy.

‘I can feed my mum, bathe her, change her, love on her, which is just incredible.’ She urged other relatives who were still banned from visiting loved ones to ‘keep fighting’.

The new guidance allows indoor visits without a screen, as long as the visitor tests negative for Covid-19 and wears PPE.

It follows a major Daily Mail campaign against cruel visiting bans which have torn families apart for the past year. Campaigners say the new guidance should be backed up with a change in the law so they cannot continue to ban visitors.

Last night deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said: ‘It’s a heartless fact that this virus thrives on us being together.

‘There is a very delicate balance between the clear benefits of visits for the physical and mental wellbeing of care home residents and their families, and the infection risk that close contact poses – not just to the individuals themselves but to other residents too.’