I think the deafness affects me more than I realise I think it makes me more tired. I loathe parties. I attend, smile and leave.

When I look in the mirror, I sometimes think I'm getting old, but then I have two generations behind me so that helps puts things into perspective. I am a grandmother now, but at least my nine-year-old grandson Jude calls me Glamma and not Granny.

I took some classes in sign language when I was in my early teens because I was told that I would be completely deaf very early. But I never really wanted to learn.

One of the reasons I wanted to teach deaf children was because it made me very sad that they spoke so clumsily and that they moved with less grace that I knew was possible of deaf people.

I think the deafness affects me more than I realise I think it makes me more tired. I loathe parties. I attend, smile and leave.

I'm lucky that most of the time I'm on location in amazing places. Most of the time, I don't need holidays, I just stop working.

We all live in fear of cancer, but to be told you have skin cancer was terrifying.