Kirsty Young has discussed her “horrible” experience with severe pain, which caused her to take a four-year hiatus from presenting.
In 2018, Young resigned as presenter of Desert Island Discs due to fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.
She warned her successor, Lauren Laverne, that chronic discomfort “wears you down”
“You lose your personality, your sense of humor, and your sense of self; a variety of other things are lost as well. It is terrible.”
Fibromyalgia generates widespread pain and can cause extreme exhaustion, whereas rheumatoid arthritis causes joint pain, swelling, and stiffness. The two chronic illnesses are frequently connected.
Young, 54, stated that she received a diagnosis after around a year of attempting to determine what was wrong with her health, by which point she was “feeling ropey.
Eventually, the journalist and former Crimewatch host located a “great professor of rheumatology” who advised her to minimize her workload.
She originally protested, telling him, “I can’t do it part-time since that’s the type of work I have.”
I had to take the matter seriously.
“And he said, “Well, part of getting better is, we can introduce all sorts of drugs, we can monitor you, but you must lower your stress and take this seriously.” You cannot continue to take ineffective medications that make you feel ill.
“It was quite genuine. It was expressed with the utmost courtesy, yet it was merely a moment of pure truth and clarity. I recall pulling over in my car and having a good old – to use an old Scottish word – greet [tear] about it.”
She went on: “When discussing this, I am very aware of the fact that other patients receive diagnoses that are considerably more serious than mine.
“But it is a very severe condition, and I was in pain; a chronic, long-term pain condition is a physical and figurative pain to live with; therefore, I had to take it seriously if I wanted to get better. So I did.”
She reported that she was now “so much better” and fit to co-host BBC coverage of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this summer and the monarch’s burial in September.
Young’s passionate closing remarks after the funeral coverage were warmly acclaimed. She summed up the mood by saying, “Today we have gathered, many of us with tears in our eyes, but all of us with a deep appreciation for all that she has given.
She recalled that afternoon and stated: “As I was writing it, I realized that we are all at this moment – I am, you are, and we have all been there before. What has been going on? Why has this moment transpired in this manner? That was the point I was attempting to make.”
She also told Laverne about her early life and career, including how she encountered “a beautiful little dash of snobbery and misogyny”.
“However, this is not unique to me,” she continued. She recalled a conversation she had with an English female film director at the Channel 5 opening party in 1997, who asked her if she planned to read the news “in that voice.”
“However, it’s the only one I have! I was utterly astounded by that. I believe she intended accent.”
She also recounted seeing former cabinet minister Michael Heseltine at the Conservative Party convention, when Channel 5 was attempting to “schmooze the politicians” into appearing on the nascent broadcaster.
She stated that Michael Heseltine turned to her and remarked, “I’m not going to let some little smart alec in a skirt get the best of me.” I reasoned, “Right, so it’s trousers suits from now on.”
