AndyPR
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/eve...-make-stunning-West-End-comeback-aged-74.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/eve...-make-stunning-West-End-comeback-aged-74.html
It's a long-ish article, I've posted all the relevant, to us, bits that I saw.
Don't know about anybody else but, with this limited information, this sounds to me more like a misdiagnosis than M.E., although if it isn't then we all know the cure now!
He was forced to quit the show at the end of 2004 when dehydration and exhaustion triggered a virus that led to myalgic encephalopathy, or ME.
‘You go… [he slumps in his chair]. There’s no energy. You’ll sit on the sofa and there’s nothing. You’re feeling like a blob. You ache. I had every scan – they found nothing.’
That’s the point at which some people suggest ME is psychological, don’t they?
‘That’s the most frustrating thing, because that’s what it feels like. You want to work. In the end I gave up and thought, “I’m going to go to New Zealand.”
'I had to change my life, because I didn’t want to feel like I was feeling any more. So I went far away from responsibility.’
Crawford went sailing and bought a house.
‘I was on my own. Already my head had changed. I was seeing hills and greenery, beautiful palms and things I wasn’t familiar with. And sun. I thought, “This is bliss.”’
He lived as a recluse for a while but gradually emerged.
‘I wanted to make new friends and sail. I put about 3,000 plants in the garden. Within a year I was growing vegetables. I changed my diet and lived completely off the land.’
His career seemed to be over. Tash went out to join him and for five years they lived in rural New Zealand. They still have that house – and spent the winter there – but gave up the chance of residency in 2010 when Lloyd Webber asked him to return to the West End to play the title role in The Wizard Of Oz. Why give up his idyll?
‘I did it for the grandchildren, as they’d never seen me in anything.’
The show ran for 18 months, after which he retired again – or so he thought. But here he is, shoulders back and chest out, to demonstrate how he plays Leo.
‘When I come through the door on opening night, it’s him. Michael isn’t there any more. Michael is inside, because Michael’s working him.’
Eight shows a week is a big challenge. Is he frightened the ME could return?
‘I guess it’s there in my head. But that was yesterday and you have to think about today, tomorrow and the next day. And that’s where I am…’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/eve...-make-stunning-West-End-comeback-aged-74.html
It's a long-ish article, I've posted all the relevant, to us, bits that I saw.
Don't know about anybody else but, with this limited information, this sounds to me more like a misdiagnosis than M.E., although if it isn't then we all know the cure now!