Jane Felstead EXCLUSIVE: Made In Chelsea star’s treatment for MS has been delayed due to COVID-19

Made In Chelsea‘s resident mum Jane Felstead has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt to her treatment for Multiple Sclerosis – after she waited years to undergo a new therapy.

The 68-year-old TV personality told MailOnline on Wednesday that, although disappointed, she appreciates that it’s best to wait – and that there are some perks to being in lockdown.

‘The treatment was supposed to happen on April 1,’ Janey explained. ‘I spent years waiting. And a week before I knew it was going to happen I got a call saying, “sorry we have to delay”, and that if they went through with it I would be more vulnerable to COVID than I am already.

‘My disease is worsening dramatically fast, and of course I am not being able walk around and get out right now. But it’s for my own good.’

Yet ever-optimistic Janey insists the situation isn’t getting her down and she is determined to push through.

‘In terms of my mental health, weirdly, happily, it feels brilliant. I guess that living alone for so long means I have become selfishly comfortable. I can eat when I like, go to sleep when I want. So I am doing very well with it.

‘But also, for me, in the condition I am, with the MS being bad, I’ve not got much energy. I don’t have to put the slap on or go out. And I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything. I plan on spending Easter Sunday catching up with The Crown.’

Jane has always been open about being spiritual and admitted: ‘I don’t feel that I will go down with this. I am much more laissez-faire than my kids would like. They would have us in cotton wool I’m sure.’

Janey is mother to son Ollie and daugters Anna-Louise and Binky – the latter of whom she has returned recently with to Made In Chelsea after a break from the show. 

‘Because I do have a weakened immune system the kids do think about it and worry. I think AL has obviously always thought about it but now suddenly she worries that she might lose me, and then that might make Binky go into a darker space.

‘But I don’t get depressed about the situation. I have [apps] Zoom and Houseparty. I hate fuss, it makes me feel different and old.’

On last week’s Made In Chelsea, Janey recounted an incident where she ‘fell over the cat’ while she was on her own.

Elaborating on the fall, she told us: ‘I got myself together, rolled over. Then the cat crept out from under me, poor thing. My cat is beside me all the time, I wake up at night and he’s on the pillow, paw on my head. I think he knows I’m not well.

‘Anyway I was on the floor for about half an hour. I had fallen in a way that meant I didn’t hit my head on the counter. I did hit my shoulder though. But I was okay overall.

‘Things do get me low sometimes and I think, “oh this is so bloody miserable, I can’t be arsed with this!” And I think I don’t have the strength to go on some amazing diet, I may as well get fat and go in a wheelchair. But then I think, “no, I want to be able to go to [Fulham restaurant] The Brown Cow again!”‘

‘I didn’t live through the war – I am not that old – but I have been around a while and I am sensible. I won’t lie in bed trembling.’

Janey is about to embark on a detox in lockdown – with The Brown Cow in her sights for when the pandemic is over.

‘You need to have an alkaline stomach to help with an auto-immune illness. After all, all disease starts in the gut. It’s about getting the acid out of your system, alter your eating, take supplements. So I’m going to give it a shot. It’s exciting to see where the ride takes me.’

Janey has felt the current lockdown coming for a while.

‘There’s a blessing in this situation. We can take time out for health and healing, have a cleanse. We were all killing ourselves. We can re-balance.

‘I like to meditate. Calm my mind a bit. It’s amazing what comes into your mind when you sit in it. Amazing what washes over you. It really is about keeping calm and carrying on.’