Judi Dench health: ‘I’m not going to be beaten’ – Star on deteriorating eye health

Judi Dench reflects on some of her ‘special’ acting roles

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Roughly 600,000 people in the UK are affected by the condition, which causes irreversible vision loss.

The condition often doesn’t lead to complete blindness but affects the centre part of the vision severely.

Without this vision, driving, recognising faces, and reading can be difficult.

When she was 84, Dame Judi told Surrey Life about her hopes to deal with the condition.

Roughly 600,000 people in the UK are affected by the condition, which causes irreversible vision loss.

The condition often doesn’t lead to complete blindness but affects the centre part of the vision severely.

Without this vision, driving, recognising faces, and reading can be difficult.

When she was 84, Dench told Surrey Life about her hopes to deal with the condition.

She was asked about what ambitions she has for the future and said: “Ooh, there’s a question; I just want to go on being mobile really and being able to do things.

“I’m not going to be beaten by my eyes for instance.

“I have macular degeneration, which means treatment every six weeks, but you just have to settle for it.”

She was asked about what ambitions she has for the future and said: “Ooh, there’s a question; I just want to go on being mobile really and being able to do things.

“I’m not going to be beaten by my eyes for instance.

“I have macular degeneration, which means treatment every six weeks, but you just have to settle for it.”

The long list of films Dame Judi has featured in over recent years, including No Time to Die and Belfast, suggests that she’s living up to her ambitions.

“On my scripts, my font is point-size 22, so you can imagine… If we’re doing a sonnet of 14 lines, all the others will have one page and I’ll have 14! It’s ridiculous, it’s a farce, but I’m not going to give in.”

The star recently admitted the extent of her support on set in a recent charity talk alongside Stephen Fry and Hayley Mills.

”I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again,” she said during a Vision Foundation Talk.

She also revealed in a speech at the Santa Barbara film festival that her “eyesight is so bad” that she has to receive visual cues.

“I can’t actually see very much and so I do go but a friend of mine usually has to say: ‘He’s kissing her now’ or ‘He’s walking away,'” she said.

According to Mayo Clinic, the condition is known to be hereditary.

Researchers, it explains, have found specific genes they believe are connected to the condition, which might explain why Dame Judi has the condition as her mother also developed it.

Although AMD can run in families, it doesn’t always. There are behaviours you can do to reduce the risk of developing AMD.

Mayo Clinic advises people to get routine dilated eye exams, eat lots of vegetables, include fish in their diet, and stop smoking.

Leafy green vegetables specifically provide key vitamins that support retina health.

Moreover, smokers tend to develop macular degeneration at an earlier age than non-smokers.

Source: Read Full Article