During her seven-decade tenure in the limelight, Dame Maggie Smith never shied away from discussing her health woes. The theatre and acting legend, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 74, also suffered from an autoimmune disorder, thyroid eye disease and other serious illnesses during her lifetime.

The Harry Potter actress, who died on Friday (September 27) aged 89, began her career on stage at the Oxford Playhouse. As well as becoming a renowned stage star, the two-time Oscar winner has appeared in feature films such as Sister Act, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and more recently Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Miracle Club.

Maggie’s sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, announced the death of their mother in a statement issued via a publicist. They said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”

In 2009 Maggie revealed she had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer. “It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t know what the future holds if anything,” she admitted at the time.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of it, because of my age — there just isn’t. It’s all been. I’ve no idea what there will be.”

Speaking about receiving treatment whilst simultaneously filming scenes as Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she told Tim Teeman: “I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody

“I wouldn’t have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places?”

The Downton Abbey favourite even addressed her own mortality, saying: “I was relieved to be the age I was because by now you feel like it’s all over anyway.

“That’s why I hated seeing young people receiving treatment [at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London]. I couldn’t bear that, it didn’t seem fair. To be honest, you feel so ghastly you wouldn’t mind dying a lot of the time.”

Maggie also suffered from Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that can prompt the immune system to produce an antibody that interferes with thyroid cells.

When she was 33, the mother-of-two began to experience Graves’ ophthalmopathy, which affects around a third of those with Graves’ disease.

Opening up about her discomfort in an interview with The New York Times, Maggie claimed her swollen eyes had become irritated and bulged out creating an “absolutely frightening” appearance.

After being diagnosed with Graves’ disease, Maggie underwent radiotherapy as well as optical surgery to lessen symptoms.

It is understood going under the knife resulted in noticeable bruising around her eyes.

In 2016, Chris spoke out about how his mother wanted to avoid being admitted to a care home if she began to suffer with Dementia.

“There’s no chance of her ever going into a home,” he said, according to Maggie Smith: A Biography by Michael Coveney.

“She’s one of those who says, ‘Take me to Switzerland if anything starts going south and I can’t remember your names’.”