Julie Walters on her bowel cancer
Mamma Mia! star Julie Walters has spoken candidly – and with humour – about her battle with bowel cancer
WE KNOW her as irrepressible Rosie in Mamma Mia!, the ballet teacher with a heart of gold in Billy Elliot, the mouthy working-class sweetheart in Educating Rita and Ron Weasley’s nononsense mom in the Harry Potter films.
Through each movie runs a common thread: Julie Walters’ twinkly sense of humour, which always seems as if it’s about to bubble over in a froth of fun.
And this was evident again recently when she shared something that isn’t funny at all: the 69-year-old actress has been battling stage 3 bowel cancer.
The veteran British actress broke the news during a BBC interview, sharing intimate details of her journey and, with typical candour, saying no one should be embarrassed to be checked out for the disease.
“Bottoms are part of your digestive system,” she quips. “Doctors are used to bottoms – they’ve got one themselves.”
The Golden Globe winner endured her health battle in secret for 18 months and was recently given the all-clear. Now she’s eager to spread the message of the importance of regular screening.
“If you catch it early, bowel cancer is the best type of cancer you can have,” she says. “Just go and make sure you get checked.”
Julie first sought medical attention a year before her diagnosis because she had indigestion and slight discomfort – but then her symptoms worsened and she started experiencing stomach pain, heartburn and vomiting.
She was referred to a gastric surgeon who ordered a CT scan.
One day, while on the set of her upcoming movie The Secret Garden, she received a call and she was asked to come in to see the specialist. The scan had revealed an abnormality in her intestine, which the doctor told her might be cancer.
“I was still thinking, ‘That’s ridiculous, he must have made a mistake’,” Julie says.
But she was reassured by the doctors, who were optimistic about her prognosis.
“They told me, ‘We can fix this.’ And they did.”
SHE wasn’t always so positive though. Julie recalls being terrified while waiting for surgery. “I thought, ‘ Well, I may not come round from the anaesthetic’.” The surgery involved a colonoscopy, a biopsy and having a 30cm slice removed from her colon.
“I wasn’t looking forward to it but they gave me pethidine [a painkiller] and a sedative,” Julie says.
“When I came round, I felt absolutely marvellous. It was obviously the anaesthetic. I was really happy and I said to the night nurse, ‘Is [reality TV show] Love Island on?’ and we watched it together.”
A couple of days later, however, reality kicked in and she felt “exhausted and a bit low”. Chemotherapy followed, something she was initially against but her doctors advised her to go through.
“I’ll never forget taking the first lot,” she says. “My hand was shaking. I felt like I was killing myself.”
Julie was fortunate that her chemo didn’t cause hair loss. Treatment over, she says she’s now doing really well. “I’ve just had a scan and I know that I’m clear.”
She recalls breaking the news of her diagnosis to her husband, Grant Roffey (63). “I’ll never forget his face. Tears came into his eyes.”
The couple met in 1987 when he was an Automobile Association (AA) patrolman, and it was love at first sight. “I thought, if it doesn’t work out with this man, how could it work with anyone?”
They went on to have a daughter, Maisie Mae, and now live on an organic farm managed by Grant in West Sussex.
JULIE says her diagnosis has changed her attitude to work.
“I was due to do two big series and there were two films. And [because of the cancer] I just didn’t have to do any of it.
“And that was wonderful. It was a relief to get off this merry-go-round. It’s the way I approach acting. It’s stressful, even if it’s exciting stress. In between jobs, I work like mad on the character.”
Julie has been nominated for two Oscars – best actress in Educating Rita and best supporting actress in Billy Elliot – and is one of the most highly respected British actresses in the business.
Her treatment meant skipping the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again premiere in 2018. Her PR team told everyone she had a ruptured hernia so she could keep her diagnosis secret.
She also had to miss some filming for The Secret Garden, with the production team cutting her from certain scenes.
Now she has her health back, Julie is reluctant to take on new work and says it’s possible The Secret Garden could be her last film. “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, [ from] five in the morning till seven o’clock at night. “I can’t blame all of that on cancer. I was getting jaded but I liked being around everyone. I didn’t have the same excitement or drive I used to have.” She also bemoans the fact that with fame these days comes the element of social media. “I don’t have anything to do with that,” she says. “You’re at the mercy of opinion enough without any old Tom, Dick or Harry coming up and saying ‘you look old’ or ‘you look fat’ or ‘your acting’s dreadful’. I don’t need that, thanks. I can question those things enough myself. So you know if you’re slightly fragile and you’ve got a wall of that coming at you, it’s unhealthy.” (See our article on social media and celebs on page 8.) If she were to return to acting it would be something light and frothy. “I’d do Mamma Mia! again tomorrow. It wasn’t like a job, it was like a holiday. “Roles that require me to be blubbing all the time, or mourning somebody, take a lot out of you.” Much better and easier to allow the Julie twinkle to come out.