Diana Beard paid 'heavy price' for GBBO, says GP

Mrs Beard had to leave the show when she lost her sense of taste and smell after suffering a head injury. However, speculation has continued about her departure because of her involvement in the "Alaskagate" incident, which showed her removing fellow contestant Iain Watters' baked Alaska from a freezer, which melted, causing him to storm off set before losing his place on the show.

Mrs Beard's family doctor has now waded into the debate to fend off criticism of her, which has mainly come from social media, and confirm she was forced to leave the show after a head injury deprived her of her sense of taste and smell.

In a letter, Whitchurch-based GP Dr Kieran Redman said the 69-year-old, of Alkington, near Whitchurch, had paid "a heavy price" for taking part in a TV reality show and said her public scapegoating was a "sound reason" not to take part in such programmes.

He said that after a restaurant meal involving all the contestants the night before filming was due to start for episode five, his patient lost consciousness and fell heavily, banging her head on the stone floor, causing neurological problems.

After a visit to A&E, she was diagnosed with concussion. Later brain scans found the olfactory nerve, transmitting taste and smell to the brain, had been completely severed, he said.

Dr Redman said at first he advised programme producers that she needed time to recover before starting to bake again but added they were not prepared to allow her to miss two episodes, meaning she had to leave the programme.

"Not only has she been unfairly accused of wrongdoing by the media but she has lost her senses of taste and smell due to a freak accident.

"In my view, if ever there were a reason not to take part in a reality TV show, here is a sound one."

He added: "Ever since this head injury, Diana has been unable to smell or taste anything. She had a number of investigations, including a CT scan and a MRI scan of her head. These showed that the nerve from the nose, the olfactory nerve, which transmits taste and smell to the brain, had been completely severed as a result of the impact."

He said neurosurgeons said there was no treatment available to repair the damage.

"If she is very lucky she may regain these senses but this would take many months, if it happens at all," he added.

The "Alaskagate" episode led to the show's biggest ever audience, with 10.25 million viewers, including those who watched it on catch up service BBC iPlayer, making it one of the broadcaster's highest-viewed programmes of the year. It also attracted more than 800 complaints to Ofcom, while Mrs Beard faced an angry backlash on social media. She told the Shropshire Star that producers had made her a "scapegoat" when editing the episode.