Fair City actor Bryan Murray has revealed he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease three years ago, RSVP reports.
The actor is famous for portraying Bob Charles on the RTE soap and has shared the news publicly for the first time in an interview with the RTE Guide.
Murray is not dwelling on the bad news and says, "it's not the end of the world", but "I wish I didn't have it".
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Bryan was diagnosed with the condition, which affects his short-term memory, three years ago and until now only his family and close friends have known about it.
But now, the 73-year-old has decided to go public with the news in hopes of helping others who have the illness.
"As a younger actor, I would get a script, it would be four pages and within 15 minutes I would know the lines," he said.
"As I got older, I couldn't do that any longer."
Wife Una Crawford O'Brien, who plays Renee Phelan in Fair City, figured something was up when the pair were touring with a play together.
She said: "I noticed Bryan's lines were difficult for him. He'd get irate if I were to say anything, so later, on holidays, I asked if he'd get his memory checked.
"He had the tests and got the diagnosis.
"For Bryan, memory was his thing, and to have it taken away from you when you have been a professional actor for 52 years is upsetting.
"Yes, you can use tricks and all the rest of it, but when you can't remember, it's hard."
Bryan will continue to work on Fair City for the foreseeable future and he has praised producer Brigie de Courcy for finding ways to support his condition on set.
He told the RTE Guide: "When it first started, my character would be looking at a laptop, reading a newspaper, or I might have had a clipboard, but it would be the script in front of me.
"So, even if your memory is gone down the pan, your ways of coping with it are still intact.
"I had no problem telling the people in Fair City my memory was shot, that after half an hour of reading a script, I had no recollection of it."
Despite suffering from memory loss, Bryan's acting ability has not been affected by his diagnosis whatsoever.
"They really could have said, well if you can't learn your lines, you can't be in the show, but they did the exact opposite and that got rid of one of my biggest fears."
For now, Bryan is focused on living in the moment and hopes going public with this news will help others in a similar situation.
"I really wanted to let it be known this was my situation and that for anyone who's been recently diagnosed, there is an answer to it.
"It's not the end of the world. It's the changing of your world, but it's not the end.
"I wish I didn't have it, but I do have it, and I'm still here. I have it and I am working with it."
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