MystikIncarnate

she never put it back on after showing it to him.  She left it on the table at his estate.

From my research I found mastdata too hence why I went with Vodafone as they had the closest mast to my location.
 
It looks like an antenna is my only option. Thanks for the info - appreciate it!

it probably is; be aware that different antennas have different frequency ranges that, for lack of a better term, they're "good at".  any antenna will work, but getting one tuned to your provider would be better.  If the router's web interface will give you the band it's working on, that would be ideal, just put that cube in the window and check what bands it's working from, and get yourself an antenna that works best on those bands, and you're golden.
 
if it won't tell you what bands you're using, you're going to have to guess.  Here's the wikipedia page for vodafone UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_UK#Radio_frequency_summary
 
bonus points will be issued (in the form of higher stability and better bandwidth) if you can get a semi-directional antenna, like a panel antenna (discussed in a recent episode of TQ), or use something more directional like a yagi antenna or similar, and point it at the antenna tower.  Unless you're using a dish-style antenna, it's unlikely you have to be super precise about it.

In doing a small amount of research, I came across this: https://mastdata.com/ which may help you orient the antenna towards an antenna tower/array (otherwise known as a mast).
 
Good luck.

she never put it back on after showing it to him.  She left it on the table at his estate.

based on this, I'd say one of two things is the problem, likely the latter but possibly the former:
 
Antennas are broken somewhere other than the connector.  It's possible, though unlikely.  MacBooks (in fact most laptops) are designed in such a way to prevent the antennas/cables from taking damage during normal use. unless you have some significant damage to the chassis of the device, it's unlikely that this is the problem - unless of course, you DO have dings and dents in the chassis, specifically on the monitor-side of the notebook, in which case, this becomes MUCH more likely.
 
The alternative is that either your TX amplifier isn't engaging, or is electrically damaged in some way.  In which case, you need to replace the WiFi card in your macbook to resolve the problem.  You should be able to find one relatively inexpensively second-hand.  I'm not sure if Apple has booby-trapped the WiFi cards at all, so you may want to do some research on this before proceeding (assuming you can replace it yourself at all - not sure if the card is a part of the mainboard or not).
 
in either case, the symptoms point to: you can hear them, but they can't hear you.  Evidence is pretty simple, you can "see" the networks, and you haven't noted the signal strengths are all super low, so I assume they look normal; but when attempting to connect, it fails to permit the connection.  likely because the target network isn't able to receive your signal.
 
This is all just assumption based on the evidence provided, and there are some crazy other things that could have also gone wrong, but IMO, are much less likely than the issues I've stated.  Since a new Airport card can be had (from eBay) for $20-30, it's not unreasonable to pick one up to test with.  Alternatively, buy a USB wifi dongle and use that until you can put together something more permanent.
 
Personally, I'm not a fan of USB WiFi, but if it's your only option, it's better than nothing.  but I'm not you, maybe you're perfectly happy with USB wifi.

she never put it back on after showing it to him.  She left it on the table at his estate.