Chris Kamara has shared how he 'feels like a fraud' as a broadcaster as he continues to battle a condition affecting his speech. Earlier this year he left Sky Sports after 24 years. The former footballer, better known as "Kammy", made the decision after he revealed he had developed the speech disorder, apraxia.
He spoke out about the condition in March after fans messaged him to ask if he was okay as he appeared on the weekly show Soccer Saturday. They noticed that the popular pundit appeared to be struggling with his speech, which sounded slurred, and concerned viewers took to Twitter after noticing he wasn't 'his best'.
Former Brentford footballer Chris, 64, later explained that he has developed the speech disorder apraxia, alongside an existing thyroid condition that he revealed last year. He shared in a tweet: "Just wanted to let a few of you know who tweeted me today that I am ok ish. Alongside my Thyroid problem I have developed Apraxia of Speech & have been working to get my speech back to normal."
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He added: "Some days it can be a little slow and some days it’s normal. Hopefully I can beat this," before he was overwhelmed with support and well wishes. Apraxia is a neurological disorder characterised by the inability to perform learned (familiar) movements on command, even though the command is understood and there is a willingness to perform the movement.
Later, appearing on Good Morning Britain, where he was heaped with praise from viewers, Kammy said: "My Apraxia, when it's bad stops those signals from that brain going to that mouth so it slows it's down. In fact, at times it slurs the words as well. So people are looking and thinking, 'Is he alright? Is he drunk?'"
Kammy said he was working with multiple speech therapists as he vowed to 'beat' the speech disorder. He recently revealed how he offered to quit The Games after his recent health struggles, but was talked around by bosses. While he left Sky Sports at the end of last season, Chris continues to do other television work.
Asked on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast how life was for him at the moment, the ITV Ninja Warrior host said: "Strange in terms of I feel a fraud now in terms of broadcasting – I don’t bring to the table what I used to. So that’s hard. I feel I’m doing these programmes and they’re not getting the best of me, but they’re tolerating me. That’s how it feels.
"My life away from the screen couldn’t be any better – grandkids, family, it’s perfect." Kammy said he had initially intended to quit all television work at the end of last season before being urged not to. I think it was the right time to leave Sky, I’d had a great innings," he said.
"But BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 said ‘no – you’re Kammy, it doesn’t matter’. And would you believe it, I’m now doubly busy than what I was before. I’d like to thank all the people who have been persistent and said a 25 per cent Kammy is still better than some people."
Kammy said his experience of apraxia is that "it feels like someone is taking over my voice box". He explained: "The voice that used to come out would come out at 300 miles per hour – you’ve seen me on the results and Soccer Saturday, motor mouth, not even waiting for a breath, just keep going… Now when I hear myself or see myself on TV, it’s someone else. It’s strange, it’s really strange.
"Some days the message from the brain to the mouth is really slow, which makes it difficult, or some days the words come out different to what you’re trying to say, and that’s even weirder. That’s been hard to accept, and still hard to accept. It consumes your mind, or it has done, mine – every day I wake up and the first thing I think is 'am I going to be able to talk today?'"
He has been undergoing various treatments and “wouldn’t say I’m more than 60 per cent the old me, but I was 20 per cent, so I’ve gone up 40 percent." Kammy added: "I’ve just been introduced to the best neurologist in America, and he said because I have good days, there’s no reason why I can’t be cured. So I’ve sent off a load of blood tests and everything to America, and I’m just waiting on the results."
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