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ITV
Sinha (far right) has been a “chaser” on The Chase since 2011
Paul Sinha, one of the professional quizzers on ITV’s The Chase, has revealed he has Parkinson’s disease.
“I will fight this with every breath I have,” tweeted the 49-year-old comic, going on to share further details of his diagnosis in a blog post.
Sinha, a former GP, said he was told he had Parkinson’s – a degenerative brain condition – last month.
He said it had been “a really, really tough two weeks” but said he did not “consider himself unlucky”.
“Whatever the next stage of my life holds for me, many others have it far worse,” he continued.
ITV said it was sending him “lots of love”, while digital channel Dave told him to “give it hell“.
Sinha said he intended to “keep Chasing, keep writing and performing comedy [and] keep quizzing” while joking that appearing on Dancing on Ice was probably “out of the question”.
“A lot of people have asked ‘What can I do to help?'” he concluded. “The answer is to treat me exactly the same as before.”
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ITV/Shutterstock
Bradley Walsh hosts The Chase, which Sinha joined in 2011. His fellow “chasers” are Anne Hegerty, Mark Labbett, Jenny Ryan and Shaun Wallace.
Last month the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones revealed he has Parkinson’s, whose symptoms include involuntary tremors.
Sir Billy Connolly and actor Alan Alda have also spoken about how they deal with the illness since being diagnosed in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
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