BBC’s Caroline: I fear for my future with MS
SENIOR BBC journalist Caroline Wyatt says she is ‘terrified’ by the prospect of a long, slow decline after discovering she has multiple sclerosis.
The former war reporter revealed she is more afraid of a gradual worsening of her health than she was of being blown up in Iraq or Afghanistan. In a moving interview, she spoke for the first time about being scared of the future and her ‘really sad’ decision to quit as religious affairs correspondent.
Miss Wyatt 49, said she feels her body is ‘betraying her’. She told Radio Times: ‘I fell over in the street the other day, which was a really big shock. Neither my vision nor my balance are particularly good.’
She added that a bout of double vision made her realise that ‘if I lose my sight I won’t be able to do all the other things I want to do in life – whether that’s painting, writing dreadful poetry. I sat down and looked it in the face and thought, “Bugger”. Reporting news is often about reporting death, particularly in the places I have been. But it’s less terrifying to me to think of being blown up and dying than to think, “Gosh, I might decline slowly’’.’
Miss Wyatt had symptoms of MS for years but was misdiagnosed until last July. She said: ‘I feel really sad now because I’m not going to be a correspondent full time any more – I physically can’t.’ She is to present shows on Radio 4 and the World Service.
Good Health – Page 47