Leslie Ash "lost ten years" of her life after recovering from a superbug 15 years ago.
Leslie Ash
The 59-year-old actress was admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital with cracked ribs when she contracted methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) - a skin infection that almost left her unable to walk - in 2004 but she felt she missed out on a decade of her life and lost her acting career.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "I really feel like I've lost ten years out of my life."
The 'Men Behaving Badly' star had endless physiotherapy, pilates, workouts and doses of painkillers to broaden her range of movement, regain her balance and wake up her nerves and she finally came off medication two years ago after her doctors "kept upping the doses of painkillers until she actually felt like a bit of a zombie".
It was her son, Max, who made her realise: "When you're on those pills, they are antidepressants, you don't feel any emotion at all."
However, Leslie revealed that none of her friends from the acting industry checked up on her during the years she spent recovering from the infection.
Asked if they got in contact, she added: "Erm. No. Not Really. I can count on one hand how many people checked in. No. I was quite remote. I think a lot of people thought, 'Give her space to sort herself out.' And then the years turned into a decade."
But despite the lack of support from friends and co-workers, Leslie admitted they weren't the only ones at fault as she found it tough to push past the pleasantries.
She continued: "I think it comes from me as well. And I just couldn't find a way of doing it ... You go through a grieving process when you've lost your career. You know. And it can catch you at moments where you just feel like s**t."
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