The Split star Stephen Mangan says losing his mum to cancer when she was just 45 made him pursue his acting dream.
The actor, 54, whose dad died at 63 from a brain tumour, credits the early tragedy for pushing him.
Stephen, who also appeared in Green Wing, says: “I had never really considered [acting] as an option, but it gave me the courage to try it because, frankly, it was such a wake-up call that I might have maybe only 20 more years.”
And he admits he was so worried about dying young after his parents passed away that he visited a geneticist to see whether he was at a higher risk of cancer.
He says: “It had a huge impact on me. You start to think, is that something in our family? Is that going to be my story? What’s going to happen to me?
“That can be terrifying.”
He reveals the medic told him: “Unless you have your mum’s bowel cancer – that is possibly a hereditary thing, possibly not – then you have no greater chance of dying from cancer than anyone else.”
Now the star, whose wife is Holby City actress Louise Delamere, has regular colonoscopies.
The dad of three reveals: “Every five years the NHS, not to put too fine a point on it, shoves a camera up my backside.”
Stephen is running the TCS London Marathon tomorrow to raise funds for charity Marie Curie, who cared for both his parents.
He adds: “I can’t tell you what a privilege it is to be able to bring your parent home from the hospital so they can die in their own bed, in their own bedroom, with their family around them – and Marie Curie made that possible.”
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