Under the microscope

Some of the famous names to answer our weekly celebrity health quiz …

Hollywood star Sigourney weaver was 60 when she answered our health quiz in december 2009.

ANY FAMILY AILMENTS?

I TOOK care of my parents as they went into decline — they died in their 90s. Although they’d been very active and taken good care of themselves, they both suffered from skin cancer several times. My mum was a great athlete and spent a lot of time outdoors on the golf course and tennis court. She found the operations very hard, but it made me religious about applying sunblock.

WORST ILLNESS?

IN 1994 I developed a high fever I couldn’t get rid of, and felt like I’d pulled a muscle in my back. I had a chest X-ray and results showed a collapsed lung — I had pneumonia and didn’t know it! It was the first time I wasn’t able to do things and it was a humbling experience. After two months, my doctor said I had to push myself and go hiking. He said I wouldn’t feel well and would find it hard to catch my breath, but that’s how you get better. Who’d have thought a collapsed lung feels like a pulled back muscle?

IS SEX IMPORTANT?

THEY say it’s very important for women over 60 to continue having sex and I hope that’s true!

LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?

NO. Imagine how lonely you’d be. Interview by SARAH EWING Now a judge on Strictly Come dancing, not to mention a married father of twins, dancer Anton du Beke was single when he spoke to us in March 2008...

WHEN WERE YOU AT YOUR HEALTHIEST?

I’VE been at my peak of fitness since I started high-level competitive dancing in my 20s. Being fit is the easiest part of being a dance professional. You don’t even have to go to a gym. My only vice is coffee. I have four or five cups a day. I don’t drink. It doesn’t agree with me.

DO YOU PREFER MALE OR FEMALE DOCTORS?

FEMALE everything. Dancing means getting up close to women — so I’m not worried about a consultation with a woman doctor. They make better doctors than men. They have more compassion.

CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT…

STILL mineral water or tap water. I drink two litres a day. Interview by MOIRA PETTY CRICKET legend Sir Viv richards took our health quiz last year when he was 68, revealing the childhood injury that could have prevented his sporting career.

HAD ANYTHING REMOVED?

A BACK tooth. I was batting way back and got hit by a cricket ball on the left side of my face. The ball must have come off my glove and hit my jaw. I was left with a wobbly tooth. The dentist took it out under a local anaesthetic. I left the gap empty.

COPE WELL WITH PAIN?

I TRY to tough it out. I’ve never been into painkillers.

WORST INJURY?

WHEN I was about eight, I was playing in a park without shoes on. A broken bottle slashed the back of my left leg and ripped the Achilles tendon. I was taken to hospital and the surgeon must have been one of the best, as a lot of people thought I would never walk properly again.

POP ANY PILLS?

FISH oil and vitamin C for immune support and turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties. I’ve had acupuncture to help with sinus infections but the jury is still out on whether it helped.

LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?

ONLY if all the folks you appreciate in life were there to live it out with you.