Dame Judi Dench battling blindness

British actress Dame Judi Dench has told UK newspaper The Mirror she has been diagnosed with macular degeneration and is battling to save her eyesight.

Dench, 77, said, “I can’t read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes.

“And so somebody comes in and reads them to me, like telling me a story.

“It’s usually my daughter or my agent or a friend and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind.

“I had wet in one eye and dry in the other and they had to do these injections and I think it’s arrested it. I hope so.”

She is assisted by lenses and glasses but insists it won’t impede on her passion for her work.

“As long as there is a possibility of working I’m not going to retire because if I retire nothing will work any more and it’s hard enough as it is.

“I’m very conscious that I’m in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it – how incredibly lucky.”

In addition to her film career, her television credits include Cranford, Angelina Ballerina and As Time Goes By.