Maggie Smith died this Friday, September 27, 2024, at the age of 89. Several decades ago, the British actress revealed that she suffered from Graves’ disease, an illness that caused her a lot of suffering.
He is a figure of British cinema who has just bowed out. This Friday, September 27, 2024, Maggie Smith’s sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, both actors, announced the disappearance of their mother, at the age of 89. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning. She was a very private person, but she was with her friends and family at the end of her life. She leaves two loving sons and five grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.“, they said in their press release. In almost seven decades of career, Maggie Smith has left her mark on the minds of millions of fansnotably thanks to roles that made her unforgettable.
Who else but her to play Professor Minerva McGonagall, in the Harry Potter saga, or even Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Franthan in Downton Abbey ? If the actress had a life filled with much happiness and success, she also experienced very difficult periods, notably when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. An illness which at the time forced her to wear wigs on the set of the last three parts of Harry Potter. “I no longer had any hair. I had no problem wearing a wig“, she confided, admitting that chemotherapy had made her “horribly ill“.
Graves’ disease, the illness from which Maggie Smith suffered
For several decades, Maggie Smith publicly revealed she had Graves’ diseasefollowing which she underwent radiotherapy and eye surgery. But what is Graves’ disease? It is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid, which causes hyperthyroidism, and can lead to the eye moving out of its socket..
As the Elsan site specifies, this disease, which is linked to genetic predispositions, affects female patients more than male patients. “This subsequently results in abnormal reactions of the immune system and, in this specific case, stimulation of the thyroid gland responsible for hyperthyroidism.“, adds the site.
