Oscar winning actress Judi Dench has told the Daily Mirror on Saturday, that she has been battling to save her sight from a degenerative disease she was recently diagnosed with.
“I can’t read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes,” the 77-year-old actress says. “And so somebody comes and reads them to me, like telling me a story. It’s usually my daughter or my agent or a friend, and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in mind.
Dench expressed that her mother also suffered from the same muscular degeneration disease. It has even become difficult for her to see people sitting right in front of her. “The most distressing thing is in a restaurant in the evening I can’t see the person I’m having dinner with.”
Despite her bad eye condition, the James Bond star has no plans of quitting the screen anytime soon. Dench feels fortunate to have an opportunity to make a living doing something she loves stating, “as long as there is a possibility of working I’m not going to retire.”
The award winning star also spoke about her hope to regain sight by receiving eye treatments. “They had to do these injections and I think it’s arrested it. I hope so.”
Macular Degeneration is a common disease affecting people over 50. It mostly affects the central visual field, called the macula and is one of the major causes of blindness in old age.
Judi Dench debuted her acting skills in 1957, in Shakespearean plays. Since then she has starred in various theater productions, film and television roles. She is best known for her award-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love and spy boss M in the James Bond series.
