Actress Miriam Margolyes has candidly discussed her ongoing health battle and has even predicted the moment she’s ‘going to die’. The 83-year-old, who is joining Gogglebox for a Stand Up to Cancer Special, opened up about her diagnosis with spinal stenosis – a condition that causes the spine to narrow.
In a recent interview, Miriam looked back on the moment she noticed her physical deterioration and the following requests she made while working on set. “When I started kind of failing physically, I remember saying to directors and producers, please don’t show me clambering out of a car or climbing upstairs on my hands and knees’,” she told The Radio Times.
“I didn’t want people to see that because I was embarrassed to see myself looking so pathetic.” The NHS explains that ‘pain, numbness, weakness and a tingling sensation in one or both legs’ is among the most common symptoms of spinal stenosis.
This can make walking or moving around incredibly difficult for those with the condition. Cases of spinal stenosis are especially common among older people, with the bones and tissue surrounding your spine becoming increasingly worn down. In turn, this may lead to a ‘narrowing of the spinal column’.
Earlier this year, Miriam, who played Professor Sprout” in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets also spoke to The Telegraph about her frank view on mortality, and even made a prediction about the moment she is going to die. “When you know that you haven’t got long to live – and I’m probably going to die within the next five or six years, if not before,” she said.
“I’m loath to leave behind performing. It’s such a joy,” she continued, while also adding that she finds the physical limitations of age ‘limiting and depressing’.
Yet, in spite of her challenges, , Miriam has been touched by the positive impact her openness has had on others. “I’ve met loads of people who have said I gave them the courage to do things that they never thought they could,” she told The Radio Times.