There are times in a person’s life when everything is divided into before and after. That moment for Martin Kemp occurred sometime in 1995 when a lump on the back of his head proved to be far more serious than anyone had anticipated. After a highly acclaimed performance in “The Krays” with his brother Gary, the Spandau Ballet bassist, who was enjoying a burgeoning Hollywood career, was about to have his entire world fall apart in the span of a single MRI scan.
Two benign brain tumors were discovered by the doctors. One could be surgically removed and was located just beneath the skull. The other was thought to be too dangerous to operate on because it was buried so deep within the brain. Surgeons cautioned that reaching it might harm healthy tissue irreversibly. Martin Kemp, who was thirty-four years old, was faced with a diagnosis that had no clear answers or assurances.
His wife Shirlie eventually discovered a non-invasive radiotherapy treatment at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, which at the time was a fairly revolutionary option. The surgery for the accessible tumor went ahead for the second growth. With no need for an incision, high-dose radiation beams are precisely aimed at the tumor. Martin was given a device that would eventually become the Gamma Knife. After receiving treatment for twenty minutes, the second tumor finally went away. Reading it back makes it sound almost easy. It wasn’t.
The processes were followed by a fog that lasted for years. Since then, Martin has been candid about how his brain was just not working as it once did. He remembered times when he wanted to go left but chose to go right. It seemed impossible to organize my thoughts. Learning lines something that every working actor must do without question became a real challenge. He stated “My brain was so messed up from it” in an interview with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett. He reportedly prohibited his own family from visiting him during his hospital stay because the fear was so overwhelming. Their obvious concern was exacerbating the situation.
The weight of what that time must have been like is difficult to ignore. He had built a career on his own terms, performed in stadiums with one of the iconic bands of the 1980s been filmed in Hollywood. Suddenly, he was lying in a hospital bed, telling his wife and kids to stay away because he was afraid of their faces.
Permanent marks were left by the tumors. Martin has been taking medication to treat his epilepsy, which was directly caused by the surgery, for almost twenty years. Additionally, he has dyslexia, but it’s not the type that manifests in early reading evaluations; instead, it’s a spatial and directional disorientation that stems from the physical trauma his brain experienced. He travels to his neighborhood stores using Google Maps. Roman, his son, claims that the Maps app accounts for more than half of his phone usage. Martin has stated that “that all goes back to the brain injury that I had” in a matter-of-fact manner.
Of all things, EastEnders played a role in his recuperation. His friends warned him that accepting the role of Steve Owen from the BBC soap opera in the late 1990s would destroy his remaining career. He believed he had no career left to defend, which they were unable to comprehend. The show gave him something to strive for, lines to learn even though they seemed unachievable an excuse to start thinking again. In 2000, he won the National Television Awards’ Most Popular Actor category. Something about that is subtly amazing.
Martin, who is currently 64 years old, has talked about feeling like he might only have ten years left on the podcast he co-hosts with Roman. He speaks without feeling sorry for himself, more like someone who has long since come to terms with uncertainty. He has stated that each year he lives is a bonus. That’s probably the best way to look at it given where he was in 1995.
i) https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/patient-and-visitor-information/patient-information/patient-stories/neurosciences/martin-kemp-and-the-gamma-knife
ii) https://www.epilepsyassociation.com/epilepsyu/inside-martin-kemps-health-battle-two-brain-tumors-epilepsy-and-on-medication-for-life
iii) https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/martin-kemp-nearly-died-hospital-36194256