Turning The Tables
Episodes
Monday Jan 13, 2020
EP8: Michael Crawford part 2 - Inexplicable
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Welcome to part 2 of my interview with actor, singer and comedian Michael Crawford.
In part 1 we talked about Michael’s career, his rise to fame through television in the hit series Some mothers to his award winning performance in The Phantom of the opera on Broadway.
In this second episode our conversation moves on to how Michael at the height of his career contracted a mystery illness (later diagnosed as M.E) while performing on the West End stage.
M.E or Chronic Fatigue syndrome affects an estimated 250,000 people in the UK, and around 17 million people worldwide.
It is a fluctuating, neurological condition with symptoms affecting many of body systems, most commonly the nervous and immune systems. People with M.E/C.F.S
experience debilitating pain, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms associated with the body and brain’s inability to recover after expending even small amounts of energy.
As yet there is no medical cure.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for sufferers is the difficulties in diagnosis and the common misconceptions around the condition which can lead to doubts about is validity.
It was through M.E that I met Michael when I had the condition myself, his help and support was a valuable part of my recovery from the condition.
Although there is no known cure for the condition we talk about the strategies and behaviours that can support recovery.
We talk about how it took a complete change of lifestyle for Michael to recover and “reboot” his life, and his triumphant return to the West End stage .
The recreation of the famous scene from 'Some mothers do have em' where Michael hangs off the back of a London bus at the London 2012 Olympics
and Michael's reflections on his resulting changing life priorities and his continued work with children charities.
If you would like to share your experiences of adversity you can join the Turning the Tables community on Facebook here
If you suffer from M.E/C.F.S here are some of the resources that helped me in my recovery and you may wish to explore.
Therapies and resources;
www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com
www.ansrewire.com
www.actionforme.org.uk
Episode credits;
Editor and sound engineer : Tim White email: showupnow@gmail.com
Music : Broken Elegance - Unconditionally.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrokenElegance?gvnc=1
Growing Up, Elementary, Dream to flying and Childhood by Scott Buckley
www.scottbuckley.com.au