Actor Stephen Mangan has revealed how losing his mother and uncle to cancer has radically changed his life. The 55-year-old lost his mother to cancer when he was only 22-years old, which served as a catalyst for him to pursue a career in drama.
Speaking to The Times, Stephen shared how he has turned his diet around since the death of his two close family members. His uncle passed away from colon cancer in 2012.
He said: “Louise [Delamere] has turned my diet round over the years, but I am also living in the long shadow of my mum dying of bowel cancer when she was 45 and my uncle dying from the same disease.
“Not only do I have a camera shoved up there every two or three years, but I eat stuff that will help keep everything healthy in that area.”
Stephen previously shared on a podcast that after his mother’s death, he “hid” for three years due to his grief and he said that his “whole world was thrown into chaos.”
Speaking to Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time, the actor explained that he finished a law degree at university when his mum fell seriously ill.
He said: “I left university in May or June and my mum got ill in early September. I’d gotten this law degree, but I wasn’t intending to be a lawyer. I didn’t really know what I want, I wanted to be an actor, but it was just so far out of my family experience and the people I knew.
“Mum died six months later and when you watch your mum go from an incredibly healthy, active 45-year-old and watch her decline in six months and then die, it’s a profound and very, very vivid demonstration of how fragile we are and how little time we’re alive.
“I think I had my audition for [Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts] maybe a week after she died, I applied a few weeks before she passed and just thought, this is I want to do.”
He continued: “I did three years at [Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts] and I think part of the reason that was good and useful for me was not only was I doing what I wanted to do, but I could hide from the world for three years because I was really grieving and my whole life was thrown into chaos.”
Stephen is best known for hosting Have I Got News For You? on BBC One and appearing in films such as Green Wing and I’m Alan Partridge.
