Eastenders Star Joe Swash aka Mickey Miller’s Battle with meningitis

Eastenders Star Joe Swash aka Mickey Miller has revealed how his exhausting battle with meningitis has left his soap career in tatters. Last week Joe stared in his explosive final scenes as Walford’s Mickey Miller he was told he would be axed from the BBC1 soap after months of suffering lacklustre storylines.

In an exclusive interview, Joe has revealed for the first time how his family were told to “prepare for the worst” by worried doctors as he lay unconscious in intensive care and how he had to learn to speak again.

According to reports Joe went into depression due to a combination of illness and being forced off work for three months. Joe says that “My illness had a massive impact on my job. When I came back I couldn’t find my feet. New producers came in and brought in new actors and I got lost down the pecking order. Mickey just became light relief – the joker. That’s all right but I’ve got more ambition. I would have stayed for ages if I had good stuff, but I wasn’t getting the work.”

It was back in September 2005 when Joe got ill and he said that “Emma, my girlfriend at the time, woke me up but I couldn’t talk. Half my face was numb and I couldn’t get the words out. I was constantly sick and couldn’t stand.” But as well as having meningitis, Joe was also diagnosed with encephalitis which is swelling of the brain.

Joe spent two weeks in intensive care and a total of six weeks in hospital. He admits that “It was so scary. Before, I thought I could do all this mad stuff. But it made me realise life is fragile. I’m just thankful I got out of it with no lasting damage. You hear stories of people losing limbs.” He said that “I had to learn everything again. I had to learn coordination and my speech was slurred. It felt like my tongue was too big for my mouth. And I had terrible headaches.”

In February Joe found out that his contract wasn’t being renewed.

As for the future, Joe has said that he would love to do some TV and radio presenting. He also has his eye on appearing in Brit flicks with actors like fellow cockney Danny Dyer. He said that “When you come out of EastEnders there are lots of roads to go down; you just have to choose the right path. But it will be a relief not to be Mickey Miller any more!”

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