Bob Mortimer opened up on the “worst” of his health battles as he chatted with pal Paul Whitehouse on their BBC show, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
Bob, 64, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in his childhood and also underwent a triple heart bypass in 2015 forcing him to pull out of several tour dates with his comedian sidekick, Vic Reeves. More recently, the Shooting Stars host was struck down with shingles – a painful skin condition caused by the same virus that leads to chickenpox.
Now, Bob says his problems have left him with just 20% muscle usage in his legs, rendering him unable to even go for a run. Sitting on the riverbank on their programme’s Christmas special, he told Paul: “It’s been a very, very, very unhealthy year for me with my shingles… and you know what – it was worse than my heart period.”
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Discussing the changes to his body, Bob continued: “The muscles I’ve lost, I’ve lost… but other ones can compensate for it, you know what I mean? I can make the other muscles stronger but I have a terrible feeling I’m never going to be able to run again and you know that I used to like to run Paul.”
(Image: PA)
“I’m really sorry about that mate,” said sympathetic Fast Show star Paul in response. Bob’s health forced him to sit out the show earlier in the year, with Lee Mack replacing him, despite his lack of fishing experience.
It comes after Bob told Sunday Brunch in November that his health issues were beginning to “dominate” his life. “When you get to my age, it’s your joints that go,” he told hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer. “That’s what dominates your life”.
(Image: BBC)
“I used to love preparing an exterior of a property ready to paint, but I can’t do that anymore”, he added, before gesturing that he is unable to use his arms and shoulders in the way in which he could when he was younger.
Earlier in the year, meanwhile, Bob told Paul of the hilarious way he’d like to leave this world, joking he’d want to die in a fight to death with a bear, reincarnate as a bench overlooking the River Wye and then haunt him every time he goes to the toilet.
(Image: BBC)
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Going into further detail, Bob added he’d go nude and oil himself up against a four foot bear so it couldn’t get a grip of him, but admitted he thought it would still “destroy” him.
And having succumbed to the animal, Bob confessed he would like his lifetime achievements to be included on his gravestone – including that he can peel a hard boiled egg “in one go”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
