The one lesson I’ve learned from life

Jenny Agutter

JENNY AGUTTER, 64, is one of Britain’s best-loved actresses. Her 50-year career includes 1970 film the railway Children, and Call the Midwife today. She lives in London with husband, Johan, and son Jonathan, 26.

DON’T TAKE FAMILY FOR GRANTED

ONLY when my niece was born did we discover that the cystic fibrosis gene is in my family. As a baby, she wasn’t putting on weight, but it took a few months to discover she had the condition and it was devastating. that was more than 35 years ago, though, and thanks to modern medicine, she’s currently sailing the Pacific, fit and well.

with her diagnosis, however, my brother and i suddenly realised something profound about our own childhood. i knew i’d had an older brother and a younger sister, but they’d both died as babies, and now it seemed certain they’d had CF too. they were born before a test was developed but had symptoms. Back then cF babies weren’t expected to live much beyond six months.

And yet my parents protected me so well, i had no inkling of their fears or grief. there was never a moment, growing up, that mum and dad weren’t there for me. when i started to become wellknown as an actress — i was 11 when i was first in a film, and a teenager in the railway children and nic roeg’s walkabout — my mother and father kept my feet firmly on the ground.

i started my own family more than 25 years ago (i carry the cF gene but my husband doesn’t so our son couldn’t inherit it), and about the same time began work with the charity Action for children. over the years i’ve encountered hundreds of kids whose lives aren’t free of worry; who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, or where they’re going to sleep each night.

From complex, often dysfunctional families, their childhoods are infinitely more difficult than mine was, no matter how tested my own parents were.

in the next series of call the Midwife, we deal with child abuse in an episode people will find shocking. But i’ve seen kids in my work for the charity with equally heart-rending stories. none of us should take for granted a loving parent.

JENNY AGUTTER supports Action for Children’s sponsored sleep out, Byte night. Find out more or donate at bytenight.org.uk.