Comedy legend Bob Mortimer has opened up about his past health struggles after being hospitalised at the weekend with a health scare.
The 63-year-old, one half of the 'Vic and Bob' double act alongside Vic Reeves, discussed his health while appearing on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast on Sunday.
Bob, who underwent triple heart bypass surgery in 2015 after doctors warned that 95 percent of his arteries were blocked, revealed he is also suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.
According to the outlet, the former Shooting Stars co-host explained he had initially been diagnosed with the condition forty years ago and said it returned recently after decades without it.
The comedian said he had been free of the condition - which causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints - since he was in his thirties but it came back earlier this month.
"In my mid-twenties I got struck down with rheumatoid arthritis. I just woke up and it was like, 'Bang'," he told the podcast.
"I have been free of it since I have been 34 and it came back 10 days ago. It is really sad for me to know whether it will go. Yes, I might be fat, but actually I am on steroids… it takes until you are 60 to realise all the things you could have done… at my age we all feel 47 but then your body packs in."
Last month, meanwhile, Bob revealed that his recent weight gain as a result of the steroids means he is at increased risk of cancer.
Speaking on the award-winning BBC show Gone Fishing alongside pal Paul Whitehouse last month Bob explained that if an area around your waist measures more than 102cm you are prone to more than 20 cancers.
The comic is around 104cm and has vowed to lose weight.
"We looked into it because we wondered a little bit, but it was true 22 cancers come onto the table if, as a fella, your waist is over 102cm, and it’s less if you’re Asian, 96 If you’re Asian," he explained.
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