Towards the end of last year, Pat Heathcote began to receive confusing phone calls...

It all started when friends began to ring Pat up to see how she was feeling after reading about an accident in The Times, no less, which involved her namesake. It said:

Goose Bump - Pat Heathcote, 57 years, was knocked out by a Canada goose that hit her on the head as it came in to land on a pond at Christchurch Park, Ipswich. She received bruises to her head and nose and was brought round by a bystander with first aid training.

Coincidentally Pat hadn’t been out and about for the last few days because she’d been in bed recovering from ‘flu. She is also known to have a passion for geese. One of her friends even asked, "Why did you try to catch it?" The misunderstanding about her identity continued when she visited her doctor’s surgery for advice on a severe nose bleed. One of the nurses instantly greeted her with, "I can see it was you by your pale face."

All was easily straightened out, but after a few days the nose bleeds started again, and Pat was taken into hospital for a blood transfusion and checks to see whether her heart valves were working as they should. "I completely blamed the other Pat for this... did I have an out of body experience or something."