I travelled the world working on planes but then got so terrified I couldn’t even go on a bus for 15 years

– Caroline Lendrum

You think you are going to die as you can’t breathe. It’s just so scary

An air hostess became so crippled with travel terror that she couldn’t catch a train, a taxi or even go in a lift.

Mum-of-two Caroline Lendrum was a jet- setting cabin crew member for now- defunct ai rl ine Britannia, globe- trotting all over the world on long-haul flights. But Caroline’s world turned upsidedown when she became increasingly gripped by fear of simple journeys most of us take for granted.

The 45-year- old, of Ayr, was forced to quit her job as an air steward – but that was just the start of a nightmare that saw her unable to travel on public transport for 15 years.

Her condition got so bad that she even had to flee a hotel in the middle of the night to return to her home just 10 miles away after a panic attack. Caroline, now a physiotherapy worker, said: “My whole world became smaller. This had such a crippling affect on my life. The fear grew so that, as I got older, I found I could do less and less.

“I’d worked on a plane and it’s not as if I’d never gone on a train or a taxi or a lift but gradually simple things became impossible. The anxiety started with a

plane and not being able to get off. But fear soon took over everything.

“Anywhere there was the possibility of being stuck sent me into meltdown.”

She added: “When I had my son in hospital, it was 10 at night and I overheard a nurse saying to my partner, ‘ You need to go or you’ll be locked in.’

“I was lying there thinking, ‘Locked in?’ So even though I’d just had a major operation with my caesarean section, I basically wanted out of hospital there and then.

“I started going down the stairs – I wasn’t happy until I was out the front door. My son was upstairs crying but I didn’t care. I don’t know how they managed to calm me down to get me back in.

“I know it’s stupid. Of course you can get out of the hospital because there’s emergency exits everywhere. But just hearing those words set me off.”

It had been 15 years since Caroline had stepped foot on a train when she finally got treatment from miracle mind guru Brian Costello.

She said: “The biggest reason I felt I had to get help was that I didn’t want to pass this on to my kids.

“My daughter already has a bit of anxiety and I’d hate for them to have to live with what I’ve gone through so I had to take action.

“I went to Hong Kong and I think we