The one lesson I’ve learned from life
Anne Robinson
ANNE ROBINSON, 73, presented Points Of View and Watchdog and acquired the nickname the Queen of Mean as host of quiz show Weakest Link. Twice divorced, she has one grown-up daughter and lives in London and Gloucestershire.
LISTEN TO YOUR BODY’S ALARM BELLS
If I’ve learned anything from life, it’s that it makes no sense at all to add to any mental or physical problems through either self-inflicted abuse or neglect.
By my mid-30s, I got to the point where I probably had about six weeks to live. I suffered from a really bad drink problem and my weight dropped down to about six stone.
I woke up one day and realised I had a stark choice: did I want to live or die? I was seriously abusing my body.
So I stopped drinking. Luckily, I came to my senses just in time. That was almost 40 years ago and I haven’t had a drop since.
I exercise regularly. I jog round Hyde Park or on a track near my house in Gloucestershire. I try not to eat sugar — I go for plenty of protein and veg and a bit of fish.
Human nature being what it is, we tend to ignore or explain away physical ailments, hoping they’ll go of their own accord.
I remember when my father, Bernard, a widower by that stage, came to see me in London and announced he wanted a new pair of specs. I booked him an appointment with my optician and went along, too.
It didn’t take the optician long to tell him he had cataracts in both eyes. My father then confessed he’d been using a magnifying glass to read.
So it hadn’t really been about new frames at all. He’d been losing his sight and was not facing up to reality. He was a man reborn when he’d had the simple cataract operation.
I later discovered that opticians — and it’s true of dentists, too — can also often detect problems with the heart, blood pressure and the onset of diabetes.
Many people, it turns out, get their boilers checked more regularly than their eyes. And yet, nothing is more important than your health.
ANNE ROBINSON is an ambassador for Specsavers. For more information visit specsavers.co.uk. Interview by RICHARD BARBER