Chris Kamara will sing on TV to prove his speech apraxia isn’t holding him back.
The Soccer Saturday legend, 65, who could barely speak 18 months ago due to the disorder, has signed up to Britain Get Singing. He will join fellow stars from The Masked Singer – Russell Watson and Aled Jones – for the festive show.
They’ll compete against groups from EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Love Island and Good Morning Britain in trying to impress judges Adam Lambert, Alesha Dixon, will.i.am and Jonathan Ross. A show insider said: “Kammy gets nervous about doing TV as he still has problems with his speech, but he wanted to do this. It’s a chance for him to show that he’s not letting his situation hold him back. It’s a chance for him to inspire others.”
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Kamara, who left Soccer Saturday in 2022 after 24 years with Sky Sports, opened up about the effect the condition has had on him.
“In the beginning I hardly slept, I was so worried about my speech,” he said. “Tomorrow, would I be able to talk, would I be able to have some quick wit, off the top of my head? Slowly but surely that went away. I couldn’t perform. I couldn’t speak with spontaneity, tell jokes and have a laugh, be my own self,” he recalls.
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“It was so hard for me to do a report on something that had come naturally. The excitement, the enjoyment of watching a football match and relaying that to the public all of a sudden became car crash TV. People were looking at me thinking, ‘Oh my God, Kammy, have you been drinking, have you had a stroke?’”
He admits he was in denial for 18 months before his diagnosis two years ago, even though he was clearly having problems at work, and his family – wife Anne and sons Ben and Jack – had noticed a change.
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“I was stupidly ashamed of my condition,” he said. “So I would like to apologise to every single person who has a speech problem, or neurological problem. These things happen randomly and I didn’t handle it well in the first place. But now I want to put the record straight and raise as much awareness as I can.”
Britain Get Singing will air over the festive period on ITV1.
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