Alison Steadman is dependent on a wheelchair weeks after fracturing her leg. The Gavin & Stacey star, 72, tripped over while on a trip to Dubai in January and she was injured so badly she’s been left struggling to walk. It’s hell for the actress because she’s had to put her life on hold and turn down acting work.
Alison told The Star in an exclusive interview: “I’ve been in a wheelchair for eight weeks. I am getting a bit frustrated. I want to get out and about more. But it means I can get around my flat. I can move around. Otherwise I’d be in bed or sitting in a chair and I don’t want that.” Living life in a wheelchair has given Alison an insight into what life is like for many disabled people across the country.
She said: “Going through this has made me look at life differently. I’ve realised what it’s like for people in wheelchairs. You suddenly realise what it’s like having to cope. When you go anywhere, you have to hope they have a toilet you can get to.
“And when I’ve stayed in some hotels, the rooms haven’t been great for a wheelchair. They tell you it will be, but when you get there you find out it isn’t.”
TV legend Alison suffered the fall while promoting her memoir at Dubai’s Desert Stanzas event in January. It was terrifying for her because it happened in a flash.
She said: “I knew when I fell that it was serious. The pain was so bad. It’s a case of something happening in two seconds and taking you three or four months to recover.”
Alison admits she feels lucky to be alive. The star is convinced she narrowly cheated death. She said: “If I’d banged my head the way I banged my foot, I promise you, I would not be here. Every time I get fed up, I say that to myself. The important thing is that I’m alive.”
Alison has nothing but praise for the medical staff who looked after her in the moments after the fall and those who helped her get back to the UK.
She said: “Everyone was great. The ambulance that came… they gave me painkillers immediately and put a catheter in my hand. People were really great.”
Defiant Alison is refusing to let her ordeal get her down so she went out with partner Michael Elwyn, 82, to be at the opening night of new musical Midnight Cowboy at Southwark Playhouse in London on Thursday. (Subs please keep this par)
The road to recovery is going to be long for the actress, famed for roles in Abigail’s Party and Fat Friends.
Staff at Whittington Hospital in north London are giving her top notch treatment, but it’s going to take weeks for her to get back to normal.
She said: “I had my leg in a cast for six week. Now I’m in a boot for six weeks and at the end of that I should be able to start to walk with crutches.
“Then I’ve got to have another operation to take the metal plates and the screws out of my foot. I hope I’ll be back on my feet soon. In a month’s time hopefully I will be up walking on crutches and then we’ll see.
“It’s a long journey. I’m being very well treated at the hospital and the doctors are great, the nurses are great, so I can’t complain. I’m being well looked after.”
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