- Gerald Stratford, an internet-famous retiree who grows giant vegetables, got stranded in a record heat wave.
- Stuck on a UK train platform for hours, the gardener developed symptoms of heat exhaustion.
- Heat-related illness can be dangerous, even deadly. Stratford described six hours of sweat and nausea.
Gerald Stratford left his internet-famous garden of giant vegetables and ventured out beneath a blaring British sun on Tuesday morning. He didn't know that temperatures would reach an all-time high for the UK in just a few short hours, sending him into a six-hour bout of sweat and nausea.
Stratford made a name for himself by posting photos of his astonishingly large produce on his "Big Veg" social media accounts and by writing a book of the same name. The 72-year-old retiree got stranded at an Oxford train station on Tuesday, in the UK's most extreme heat wave in centuries of record-keeping. Temperatures in Oxford reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) that afternoon. Stratford soon developed symptoms of heat exhaustion.
"I started to feel as though I wasn't in control. And that's worrying," Stratford told Insider, speaking from his home, in front of a wall of his giant-vegetable photos.
Two days after the incident, he was still feeling tired. "It was quite horrendous," he said.
—gerald stratford (@geraldstratfor3) July 20, 2022
Heat-related illness can be dangerous, especially for older people and those with high blood pressure. In the US, heat is the leading weather-related killer, causing 600 to more than 1,300 deaths each year, according to statistical estimates. Spain and Portugal report that extremely high temperatures have killed more than 2,000 people in the last two weeks.
As heat waves grow more frequent, severe, long-lasting, and widespread due to climate change, human lives are at stake. Scientists and public-health experts say that local governments should revisit their messaging around extreme heat, clearly communicate the risks to residents, implement policies to protect outdoor workers, and revamp infrastructure like railways to withstand higher temperatures.
Stratford's harrowing day in a train station without air conditioning, packed with people whose trains had been canceled, with his body temperature steadily rising, shows what happens when our systems are unprepared for heat.
Stratford's trip out of town went off the rails immediately
Stratford had seen warnings about Tuesday's temperatures on TV.
"The news person was advising people to stay in: 'Do not go out. Only go out if you have to.' And there was me, going out," he said, laughing.
But he was speaking at a vegetable and flower show in Cheshire the next day, a four-hour train ride away. So he packed a wheeled overnight bag and called a taxi to the station.
Immediately, things were off.
"I found it strange that all the trains were restricted to 20 mph because of the heat on the trains. So eventually when I got to Oxford, my train I had to catch was already gone," he said.
The next train to Cheshire was coming in another hour. So he sat on the crowded platform and waited as it got hotter and hotter. Two hours went by.
He watched as arguments broke out. A couple people around him fell ill while he sat and waited. Paramedics came to help a person in a wheelchair.
Stratford wasn't moving, but the air was so thick and hot that his internal temperature was probably rising. He was sweating profusely — one of the first symptoms of heat exhaustion. A young man next to him occasionally asked: "Are you OK? Do you feel alright, mate?"
'I just felt for the first time that this country let me down'
A train arrived, and a station worker told Stratford to get on board. He might have better luck getting to Cheshire by going to Birmingham first.
"I'm thinking of my health now. I'm thinking I've got to be careful," Stratford said.
So he didn't get on the train. Soon, an announcement came through the loudspeakers that all trains to Cheshire were indefinitely on hold. It was about 3 p.m., and he was beginning to feel nauseated. Sweat was dripping into his eyes, which were feeling sore. He had a pins-and-needles sensation along his arms.
"I had dressed accordingly, but you know when you start sweating everything sticks to you," he said.
"I've never fainted before, but nobody knows what your reaction will be, and I thought: 'If I keel over, with my belongings and everything, will it get stolen?'"
Stratford asked the young man to watch his things while he went to the bathroom. There were two things on his mind: his partner Elizabeth, and his vegetable garden at home.
Stratford called a taxi to take him back to them — an $84 (£70) ride. But first, he had to climb up a set of stairs and walk a distance, which was difficult in the stifling heat.
"I just felt for the first time that this country let me down," he said.
Five hours after he'd left the house, he arrived home and plopped into an armchair in front of a fan. His partner, Elizabeth, brought him cold water and tea. He sat there doing nothing for the entire evening, but the nausea and sweats didn't go away until around 10 p.m.
"Thank God I got home in one piece, but it took me 24 hours to get over it," Stratford said.
He felt he had let down the Royal Horticultural Association, which had to cancel his talk at the garden show.
But, he said, "nothing is more important than your health."