HEARTBREAKING: Loose Women’s Janet Street-Porter Reveals Her Terrifying Health Battle That Left Her Co-Stars Utterly Devastated
Janet Street-Porter has admitted she ‘can’t cope’ as soon as anything starts to go wrong with her health. The broadcast legend, 78, has endured numerous setbacks over the years and underwent a hip replacement operation but tends to ‘catastrophise’ as soon as something worrying crops up.
The TV star was back in her usual seat on the Loose Women panel alongside Christine Lampard, Coleen Nolan and Katie Piper when she revealed she has another procedure coming up in just a matter of days.
Explaining that one of her more recent woes started just a week ago when she was on stage, she began: “I’ve got quite bad arthritis and I’ve got another knee replacement coming up at the end of this month, not many days to go now but if anything goes wrong with my body, I absolutely catastrophise.”
“A week ago, I was doing my show in the theatre and I looked down and my neck jammed. Every since then, I haven’t been able to get rid of it. I’ve had physiotherapy and I’ve slung everything at it.” But the former I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! contestant fully intends to become a centenarian, and panics whenever something might jeopardise that for her.
She said: “I want my body to be operating at peak capacity, peak efficiency and if anything goes wrong I can’t handle it. I’ve got all painkillers going.”
“My full intention is to live to be 100 and to live a very full life so anything that comes along that might impede that, I go absolutely crazy and I can’t cope with it.”
In 2020, Janet was diagnosed with cancer. She was diagnosed following self-referral, having returned home from a holiday in Australia and she initially thought she had a mosquito bite on her nose. At the time, the journalist said: “I was glad that I had done it because I could not put up with the waiting list, and the idea that I might have to wait months.”
At the time, she added: “At the moment, everybody wants results, and you can’t really blame them. They’ve been through Covid. And when I was diagnosed, oh, this thing on my face isn’t just any old spot. It’s a basal cell carcinoma. I mean, I wanted it got rid of.”
After recovering from cancer, Janet opened up about another health scare in October 2023 when she told Loose Women viewers to check if they’re eligible for the shingles vaccine after suffering from the debilitating illness. The presenter revealed she was sent home from the ITV show after an outbreak of the virus in 2012, but Janet explained she first suffered with the illness while in her 40s and the presenter admitted she didn’t realise she had the virus at first. The journalist recalled noticing a rash on her body, which she believed was an eczema flare-up.
Following her surgery in 2020, Janet made a full recovery, and at the time she urged Loose Women viewers to keep an eye on any changes and blemishes on their skin. “I want to say to everybody watching, do look at all the little blemishes on your skin and especially moles if they change size or shape or anything,” she said. “I always did, I was always really careful, I always put factor 50 on my face. It can happen to so many people.”
Janet was subsequently diagnosed with shingles and recalled two other women at her place of work also coming down with the virus at the same time, adding: “I was very stressed at the time and that tells you what you need to know about the workplace.” Stress can be a factor which can trigger the virus and you cannot give shingles to other people, although other people can catch chickenpox from you if they haven’t had it before.
Issuing a heartfelt plea to viewers, Janet said: “I would say to people at home if you’re eligible in either of those categories, you’re over 65 after September 1st or you’re aged between 70 and 79, which I am, for goodness sake go and get the shingles vaccine because you certainly do not want to run the risk of getting it.
“And there’s a single website [getshinglesready.co.uk] so go on the shingles website and see if you are eligible because one of the debilitating side effects is the nerve pain. The scabs will go, you won’t be like a tree trunk that snaps in half, but the scabs could be down your face, it would be a ghastly experience and could affect your eyes.”
