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The actress, 69, found fame aged 18 in the ‘The Railway Children’ with next month seeing the long-awaited release of its movie sequel ‘The Railway Children Return’, in which she plays an older Bobbie Waterbury in WWII. After her niece Rachel, now 43, was born with the rare genetic condition cystic fibrosis, Jenny became a CF Trust ambassador and is urging people today to wear yellow and donate to the life-saving charity.
Since 2019 we have campaigned for, and helped secure, a series of lifesaving drugs on the NHS for UK CF sufferers and have vowed to keep supporting those with the cruel disease.
And in an exclusive interview Jenny told us how she fears she may have lost two young siblings when babies to CF – and how the Platinum Jubilee has rallied the nation together just as we all face an increasing cost-of-living crisis.
Married mother-of-one Jenny explained how the Jubilee was a moment of national joy in what has been a tough year as we face a war in Ukraine, political upheaval, and a cost-of-living crisis.
The Hollywood star said: “The Queen is an inspiration. I’ve met her several times She works so hard, is feminine and very glamorous.
“Before she was Queen she was out there with the land girls driving trucks showing that women could take part and do what they could do.
“She is more interested in the ordinary people and her public than anything else. I got to enjoy the Platinum Jubilee with my son, his wife and their toddler son Oliver.
“We had fish and chips and Champagne on the Thursday night on the village green, in Hampshire, a really good way to celebrate!
“I was deeply touched by the Saturday night party at the Palace – since she was a young woman, and through her life, she’s always talked about the world we live in, the environment and people and making it a better world.
“The Paddington sketch was really a clever thing for her to do. She delivered it beautifully. We have all wondered ‘what does the Queen have in her handbag?’ And now we know … a marmalade sandwich!”
Jenny said the nation should use the community spirit generated by this month’s Jubilee celebrations to bring people together to combat the rising cost-of-living crisis.
She added: “We have really hard times ahead and when we get to the next winter, I fear things will get really desperate.
“When it gets down to the crunch – and it will get to a crunch – we have to find ways of supporting people and in communities.”
The Hollywood actress has starred in huge blockbuster movies from ‘An American Werewolf in London’ to two Marvel superhero films – ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.
Her career breakthrough was the classic ‘Railway Children’ film – and next month the sequel ‘The Railway Children Return’ will hit the big screen.
Excited Jenny said: “It’s a story in the 1940s in the war and we forget and become removed from those times, although it feels very present with Ukraine and Russia. It is seeing war from a young person’s view.”
Now she’s urging people to don an item of yellow apparel today(Fri) and donate to the charity as we near the end of CF Week.
CF is a life-limiting, genetic condition affecting 10,600 people in the UK which destroys the lungs with sticky mucus.
Jenny started campaigning for the CF Trust after her brother’s baby was born 43 years ago with the rare condition inherent in her family’s genes.
We successfully helped fight for sufferers to access wonder drug Kaftrio on the NHS and Rachel herself is blossoming on the incredible pill. But there are still around 10 per cent of sufferers who cannot yet take any lifesaving drug.
Jenny told us: “Kaftrio is terrific. It’s made such a difference to her life. She’s not spending hours every day doing physio. She looks vibrant.”
Yet she fears she even lost two young siblings to CF without them being diagnosed, as babies were only routinely tested for it at birth since 2007.
Jenny’s elder brother Christopher died shortly after birth but she still remembers their younger sister Bridget never coming home. Both died of unexplained bowel issues, a common indicator at birth of CF.
Jenny said: “I was six when my mother became pregnant with Bridget and I remember expecting there to be a baby at home. But Bridget only survived a few days.
“It seems clear to my brother and I that the fact our mother lost two babies very young to CF-type complications, we think both our parents were carriers.”
When Rachel was born Jenny recalled: “She couldn’t put on weight and was having problems feeding.
“It was only when she was tested for CF and then my brother Jonathan and his wife Caroline both tested positive for the faulty gene, that we made the connection with the siblings we never met.
“I remember when Jonathan and Caroline had first heard about CF and were given an idea about what that might mean, how difficult it was for them – because it was quite a bleak view at that point.
“The feeling was you wouldn’t expect your child to live to be a teenager. One of the reasons we are still fighting for free prescriptions off CF adults is because it was never previously even considered to be a likely thing – so the need previously was not there.
Visit cysticfibrosis.org.uk to donate to CF research or text BEATCF to 70500 to give £5.
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