Ben Shephard provided support to friend Chris Kamara when he appeared on This Morning ahead of a screening of a documentary about living with apraxia.
‘Chris Kamara: Lost for Words’ will air on ITV tonight (Wednesday), shining a spotlight on the speech disorder the sports presenter first told fans about back in March.
Before the show hits screens, fans praised GMB host Ben for turning out for his good pal on Tuesday’s episode of the ITV daytime show.
Chris, 64, opened up to Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond and spoke about his diagnosis in 2019, admitting he didn’t tell anyone at first, as writes Birmingham Live.
He said: “I told no one, you know when something isn't quite right. I knew if I spoke in long sentences, I couldn't get the words out. I thought I'm going to wake up one day and it'll all be gone.
“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.
"My voice was my life so that was hard to accept. That’s why I kept it quiet, I thought there’s no way I can tell anybody.
“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’.”
Fans first got an inkling the former footballer - known affectionately as Kammy - was going through something when he was slurring his speech on Soccer Saturday.
And the ex Sky Sports presenter told Alison and Dermot that if it hadn’t been for Ben, who became close to while filming Ninja warriors, he may not have opened up so soon.
He added: “That’s when eventually my good mate here [Ben] got me to spill the beans on Good Morning Britain."
While some fans were asking why the spotlight was on Ben when it was Chris’ story to tell, some were impressed that he showed up to provide support for his good friend.
One viewer said: "For support, its his best friend!" as another echoed: "For support! They are best friends."
Recalling Chris’ brave decision to talk about his condition, Ben said: He was naturally very concerned because what Kammy doesn’t want is for him to feel the victim, for anyone to feel sorry for him,” Ben explained.
"He is a national treasure. Going out with Kammy is like going out with Justin Bieber, it’s a nightmare.
"You can’t go anywhere without people stopping him for photographs or pictures, they all just want to say it, and that’s been really lovely for him to see that warmth and spirit."
And on the documentary, he added: "That’s the most important thing for me, and we’ve talked about this a lot, for Kammy right now, the most important part of what he’s doing is trying to help people out there that don’t have a voice, that potentially could benefit from."
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