We all live in fear of cancer, but to be told you have skin cancer was terrifying.
Stephanie Beacham
But as far as my work is concerned, I see no impediment, and various advantages, to being deaf.
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.
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.
My worst holiday was in Athens when I was a young drama student at Rada in 1965. I ran out of money. I had my things stolen and I wasn't able to speak a word of the language.
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 can not remember even thinking that I was deaf when I was dancing.
I genuinely enjoy talking one-to-one. I have no shyness about that.
I have to concentrate more intently when people speak. I always have to position myself on their right side so that I can hear out of my left ear. I sometimes get a crick in my neck from listening. But I don't there's too much else.
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.
I'm the one by the backdoor - I am not the one in the middle of the party.
Nothing is going to improve my hearing. I've only got to prevent it from getting worse.
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.
When I was young I used to smother myself with olive oil mixed with a dash of vinegar to keep the flies away and lay in the sunshine for hours on end. But we knew no better then. Now we know how stupid that was.
When I got into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a doctor told me to give up the course as I'd be totally deaf within a couple of years. But I refused to give in.
