Chris Kamara spoke movingly about his diagnosis on Good Morning Britain
(Picture: ITV)In March 2022, Sky Sports presenter Chris Kamara appeared to slur his words during Soccer Saturday, prompting concerned viewers to message him on social media.
Taking to Twitter, he later posted that he’d been suffering from speech apraxia alongside an existing thyroid issue.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the ex-footballer hailed the “incredible” response he’d had from friends and family. He said he was receiving treatment from a speech therapist to resolve the issue.
Kamara, who made 643 appearances for clubs such as Portsmouth, Stoke City, Leeds United, Brentford and Swindon Town, added: “Today is a good day so today I think I am fine. I don’t know how I sound but it seems as if I am okay.”
The former central defender will reveal more about his personal journey with the disorder in his ITV documentary Chris Kamara: Lost for Words, which will air on Wednesday, December 14 at 9pm.
“This documentary is a very personal one for me,” the Middlesbrough-born presenter, 64, said. “I am really keen to raise awareness about apraxia of speech/dyspraxia. Little is known about it, which makes the diagnosis so much harder to navigate.
“Hopefully by sharing my story it will raise awareness and also help people who may also be living with this condition by showing them that there are ways to manage it and to still live a fulfilling life.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Kamara’s condition.
What is apraxia of speech?
Apraxia of speech, which is also known as acquired apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, or childhood apraxia, is a speech-sound disorder. This results in the sufferer having trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently.
Apraxia of speech is a neurological condition that affects the brain pathways used to plan the sequence of movements involved in producing speech.
The brain knows what it wants to say, but it cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech and sound movements.
It is not caused by weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles, and its severity ranges from person to person. It can be mild, causing trouble with only one or two speech sounds, or severe, where the sufferer can’t communicate effectively by speaking and may need help with an alternative communication method.
What are the types and causes of apraxia of speech?
- Acquired AOS - This form of AOS can affect someone at any age, but most typically occurs in adults. It’s caused by damage to parts of the brain involving speech and involves the loss or impairment of existing speech abilities. It can be caused by stroke, head injury, tumour, or other illnesses affecting the brain.
- Childhood AOS - This is present from birth, and is also known as developmental apraxia of speech, developmental verbal apraxia, or articulatory apraxia. The causes of childhood AOS are not well known, and imaging and other studies have not been able to find evidence of brain damage or differences in brain structure in children with AOS. They often have family members with a history of a communication disorder, or a learning disability. It also appears to affect boys more than girls.
What are the symptoms of apraxia of speech?
- Distorting sounds - AOS may cause people to have difficulty pronouncing words correctly with sounds, especially vowels, becoming distorted. Longer or more complex words are often harder to say, and sound substitutions might also occur when AOS is accompanied by aphasia.
- Inconsistent errors in speech - Someone with AOS might have problems saying a word correctly, but then have trouble repeating it, or may be able to say a particular sound one day, and have issues saying it again the next day.
- Groping for sounds - People with AOS often appear to be groping for sounds, or for the right word. They may try saying a word several times before they say it correctly.
- Errors in tone, stress, or rhythm of speech - Another common factor is the incorrect use of prosody, which means the rhythm and inflection of speech that we use to help express meaning. Someone who has trouble with prosody might use equal stress, segment syllables in a word, or omit syllables in words or phrases, alternatively pausing inappropriately while speaking.
What has Chris Kamara said about his apraxia of speech?
After revealing his diagnosis, Kamara took a temporary break from Soccer Saturday, before deciding in April 2022 that the 2021-22 season would be his last.
Despite leaving Sky Sports, Kamara, who is often known as “Kammy” and is renowned for his catchphrase “Unbelievable, Jeff” referring to Soccer Saturday host Jeff Stelling, continues to work in broadcasting. Along with his former Sky Sports colleague, Ben Shephard, and Rochelle Humes, he co-hosts the ITV show Ninja Warrior UK. This is the British version of the Japanese obstacle course show Sasuka.
However, apraxia continues to affect him badly.
“It feels like someone has taken over my voice box,” Kamara told The Diary of a CEO podcast.
“The voice that used to come out would come out at 300 miles an hour, you’ve seen me on the results and Soccer Saturday, motormouth, talking and not even waiting for a breath, just keep going and going.
“Now, when I hear myself or see myself on TV, it’s someone else. It’s really strange.
“Some days, the message from the brain to the mouth are really slow and makes it difficult, or some days the words come out different than what you’re trying to say and that’s even weirder. So that’s been hard to accept, and [is] still hard to accept.”
Kamara said he believed that the time was right to leave Sky Sports after a “great innings”, but that his apraxia had left him with anxiety about delivering his broadcasts.
Speaking to the podcast’s host, Steven Bartlett in September 2022, he said: “I have to say, I was going to quit everything — literally every single bit of TV — at the end of last season,” he said. “It was an acceptance, really, because what I said to my wife is, if I wasn’t a broadcaster, it wouldn’t matter, would it? She said ‘yeah’, so I said, now’s the time. I’ve had a great time.
“I spoke to my agent, Simon, abd said I’m getting out of all this and he said, ‘Yeah, you can, I’ll leave it up to you’. So I thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve done my time’. 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.”
My main objective in this documentary is to help raise awareness of all speech conditions in children who are born with problems, & adults who have acquired speech problems or had a stroke or been in an accident. If you watch on @ITV Wednesday 9pm I hope it comes over in that way https://t.co/VOpnuWDqgU
— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) December 12, 2022
When he revealed his prognosis, he told Shephard on Good Morning Britain: “It is typical, Ben. Because it is a neurological problem, we don’t know [what causes it]. The experts don’t know.
“The brain is such a complex part of you that it is hard to say whether it is the thyroid that has brought this on. Will it get better in time?
“I am trying to use parts of my brain now that allow me to speak fluently, so I am with a speech therapist, I am with another therapist who is trying his best. So it is quite incredible, really.
“The singing is not a problem, you can sing along all day long at the normal pace of a song, but talking when the apraxia kicks in makes it really difficult.
“Like I said, I am not after sympathy. There are so many people out there worse off than me.
“But I have come out and said it now, so it is there and, hopefully, people will understand when I sound a little bit not like myself.”
Kamara previously underwent a brain scan to check if he was developing dementia after suffering from what he described as “brain fog”.
