Sheppey actor Philip Goldacre is facing the toughest role of his career – as he battles diabetes.

Surgeons have already removed his right leg below the knee and have since amputated two toes on his left foot.

This week, the start of International Diabetes Month, Philip has taken time out from hospital appointments to warn of the dangers of the killer disease.

Speaking from a wheelchair at his home in Cliff Gardens, Minster, he said: “People don’t take diabetes seriously enough. It is a deadly disease which kills people. Ignore it at your peril. I have lost a leg and also nearly died.”

"At first the surgeon was worried that I appeared to be taking the news rather too well, but as I explained, it was either take my leg off or lose my life"

When gangrene began rotting his toes on his right foot, the surgeon broke the news that the leg should be amputated.

Philip, 61, recalled: “At first the surgeon was worried that I appeared to be taking the news rather too well, but as I explained, it was either take my leg off or lose my life. I had no other choice.”

He has also suffered two life-threatening heart attacks.

He said: “I have cost the health service a fortune. There is no way on earth I could have afforded all this treatment if I had lived in America or Australia. No one would have re-insured me.

“This is when you realise the true value of the NHS.”

Swale has the highest incidence of diabetes in Kent, along with Thanet, at 6.6% of adults – and it is on the increase.

NHS Swale Clinical Commissioning Group, which plans and pays for the bulk of the area’s health services, predicts the numbers will rise by 20 to 30% in the next 10 years.

There are 5,459 people diagnosed with diabetes in Swale.

Doctors estimate another 503 are still unaware they have the condition.

Swale patients have the highest rate of emergency admissions for diabetes complications in Kent.

Philip, a former pupil at Borden Grammar School, Sittingbourne, appeared as a policeman in the Merseyside soap Brookside in 1984; assistant to the BBC’s director general in The Vision, a 1987 TV film about the birth of television, in many stage shows and on Crimewatch.

On March 12 he went under the knife at Medway Maritime Hospital. On June 20 he took delivery of an artificial leg. Two days later he was back in hospital after suffering a near-fatal heart attack.

He was rushed to Medway, then to Ashford and finally to St Thomas’ Hospital, London, where he had three stents put in his heart.

The disease has forced him to make major life-changing decisions. His theatrical agent has “let him go” and he can no longer drive articulated lorries, the second love of his life and second source of income.

“I never had any of the typical symptoms such as a desperate thirst, tiredness or needing to go to the loo every night. The first I knew of it was when I had a routine medical check for my HGV licence in 1999 and doctors found sugar in my urine.”

He kept the disease under control but in December he caught a bug. He was rushed to hospital suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis.

His blood sugar levels went through the roof, his heart was racing at 250 beats to the minute and his body was beginning to eat itself from the inside.

Philip spent Christmas on a life-support machine as doctors fought to save his life.

Since then, he has spent 130 days in hospital. He has suffered two heart attacks, had his right leg amputated and lost two toes on his left foot. His weight has plummeted from 12 to nine-and-a-half stone – the weight he was when he was 17.

Type 1 diabetes is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes or junior onset diabetes as it can develop in teenagers and those under 40.

The body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells which produce insulin, raising glucose levels which can seriously damage the body’s organs.

About 10% of people with diabetes have Type 1. Patients with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce insulin – a hormone normally made by the pancreas. No one knows exactly what causes it, but it is not to do with being overweight and it isn’t currently preventable.

It is treated by daily insulin doses, taken either by injections or via an insulin pump, a healthy diet and regular physical activity.

Type 2 diabetes is also known as insulin-resistance diabetes and is far more common. About 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2 where the body does not produce enough insulin.

Sufferers may be able to control symptoms by eating a healthy diet, doing more exercise and monitoring blood glucose level.

But it is a progressive condition which eventually needs medication. It is often associated with people who are overweight and is more common in older people.