‘My voice was my life’: Chris Kamara says he would speak in soundbites to disguise apraxia diagnosis

Football pundit will discuss diagnosis in new ITV documentary

Chris Kamara has admitted that he spoke in “soundbites” to hide his slow speech after being diagnosed with a neurological condition.

In March, the football pundit appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss living with apraxia of speech, a neurological disorder where people struggle to perform movements on demand.

The topic will be explored in a new ITV documentary produced by GMB’s Ben Shephard’s production company Triple Brew Media, titled Chris Kamara: Lost For Words.

Appearing on This Morning on Tuesday (13 December), Kamara said that his diagnosis came at the same time as he learnt that he had an underactive thyroid and now doesn’t have a thyroid.

Kamara said that the issue with his thyroid “could have been rectified” if he’d gone to the doctor when he first had symptoms.

Of his apraxia, Kamara said: “We take for granted when we speak, it’s natural, but the message from [my] brain somehow gets confused and the words come out wrong, or they come out slow, or they don’t come out at all.”

Kamara explained that, because he was so known for his voice and famous catchphrases, he struggled to discuss his diagnosis publicly.

“My voice was my life, so that was hard to accept,” he said. “That’s why I kept it quiet. I thought, there’s no way I can tell anybody.

Kamara explained that he would often speak in soundbites on TV or stay quiet so as not to draw attention to himself.

“I continued doing programmes and all of a sudden, people are tweeting me or asking my friends, ‘Is he OK? Is something wrong with him? Is he drunk? He’s slurring his words, he sounds slow’. That’s when eventually my good mate here [Ben] got me to spill the beans on GMB.”

Shephard was the one to approach Kamara about making the documentary, but the pundit said that he didn’t “want to be a victim”.

However, he decided to make the documentary to highlight the prevalence of speech and language issues among children and the struggles to get help.

“They’re let down by the system, they don’t get speech and language therapy, they don’t get any help,” he said. “Where’s the help from the system? There isn’t any.”

Chris Kamara: Lost For Words airs Wednesday 14 December at 9pm on ITV.