Dame Julie Walters has spoken frankly about her fears after being diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer.
The actress has recently been given the all-clear after doctors found two primary tumours in her large intestine.
The Billy Elliot star was worried that she would not come round after her operation to remove the tumours.
Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on Thursday, she said: ‘I thought [my luck] could run out. Especially before the operation I thought, well I might not come round from the anesthetic.
‘Then when I came round, I felt marvelous, I think there was a bit of heroine in there, it’s really weird feeling.
‘I was high as a kite ringing everybody. It was only a couple of days later that I thought I felt exhausted and actually quite low.
‘I went back [to work] month later but I felt terrible. You have to remember that you have to recover from things.’
Diagnosed while shooting her latest film The Secret Garden, doctors informed the actress they had found an abnormality.
However, after opting for chemotherapy, Walters told the BBC presenter she was now feeling ‘really well’, as she said: ‘I’ve just had a scan, and I know that [I’m] clear.’
Walters – who is urging the public to ‘go and get things checked’ – was forced to miss the premiere of Mamma Mia 2, with her team at the time saying she’d suffered a ‘ruptured hernia’, in turn keeping her cancer diagnosis on the down-low.
She was also been cut from certain scenes of her upcoming film, The Secret Garden, alongside Colin Firth. Now she’s admitted her future in the entertainment industry is very much up in the air, hinting April’s The Secret Garden – which focuses on the story of Mary Lennox, who, after her parents suddenly die, is sent to live with her uncle and discovers a hidden magical garden on his Yorkshire estate – may be her final film.
Saying something ‘really engaging’ would have to grip her, Walters added: ‘I’m not saying I’ll never act again. But I certainly don’t think I can go back to [a film that requires working] six days a week, five in the morning till seven o’clock at night.’
Victoria Derbyshire airs weekdays at 10am on BBC Two.
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