Miranda Hart became emotional during tonight's episode of Celebrity Traitors as she spoke about overcoming illness in recent years. During the mission, the comedian was struck by how far she has come, saying in the diary room: 'Three or four years ago, due to illness, I thought I might never have a gentle walk again.'
'I find myself up a Scottish Highland wheelbarrowing along a very large head. It's really exciting.'
A challenging return to TV
The 53-year-old previously explained that appearing on the BBC show was difficult for her body, three decades after being diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, often known as chronic fatigue syndrome, which left her 'bedbound and without joy'.
As a result of the diagnosis, Miranda has been mostly away from the spotlight over the past five years, with her TV appearances limited to chat shows and Comic Relief.
'I haven't done much TV work for a long time, having only recently come out of long-term ill health issues, and when I was offered this, my whole body sort of relaxed, I smiled, and I just wanted to jump about like a schoolgirl with joy,' she said, speaking ahead of the show airing.
Living with ME
'I'm still living with elements of ME, and that brings fatigue and pain to manage, but I have come to a point where I feel well enough to step out, and that's also partly why I'm doing this,' she explained.
'The joy of mucking about on television again will hopefully outweigh some of the challenges. And I think it will be challenging on my body, so it'll be interesting, and it'll take some courage as this is a big next step.'
'When you live with a chronic illness, it's invisible, so people don't know that you're sitting there in pain. But then it reminds you that everybody's got their thing.'
'So, I'm also really looking forward to making friends and looking after each other and hopefully they can carry me up a hill or whatever we're going to have to do!'
A long road to diagnosis
Miranda first became unwell at age 15 and her illness developed into chronic fatigue. It culminated while in her mid-40s, in a collapse which at its peak left her confined to bed, with doctors struggling to diagnose the illness.
At one point, doctors told her there was nothing wrong with her, but eventually she was diagnosed with Lyme disease – a bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks.
'In my case, my level of illness, it was never acute; I wasn't going to collapse and die of it, luckily,' she said.
'But I kept saying to doctors, I know I'm leading a half-life, I'm leading a very debilitated life but with no understanding of why.'
'And it was almost like I kept saying, eventually, as the years went on, I said, if this was a named condition and this is how you manage it, then I could handle it, I could dig in.'
'I think the hardest thing about these sort of fatigue-based conditions, whatever they come from, is that lack of understanding, lack of never knowing when there's an end date, no management plan.'
