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The Chase star Paul Sinha has declared “f**k Parkinson’s” in a video showing himself hula-hooping for an impressive 30 seconds.
Paul was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just under a year ago, describing the moment his condition was confirmed by doctors as the “devastating denouement to a medical odyssey”, which began when he experienced a frozen shoulder two years earlier.
The disease is a disorder of the nervous system which can cause physical tremors, but in a defiant video he shared on Wednesday evening, Paul revealed that he could still hula-hoop with the best of them – for a full 30 seconds, in fact.
Paul went public with his condition in June last year, insisting: “I have an amazing family, no strangers to serious medical illness, I’m blessed to have a fiancé who is there for me, and I have a multitude of friends and colleagues whom I consider to be exceptional human beings.
“I don’t consider myself unlucky, and whatever the next stage of my life holds for me, many others have it far worse.”
As well as appearing as one of five (soon to be six) quizzing experts on the ITV game show The Chase, Paul is also a qualified doctor, stand-up comedian and contestant on the panel show Taskmaster.
“In the time since my Parkinson’s started I have been ludicrously busy, and fully intend to keep Chasing, keep writing and performing comedy, keep quizzing and keep being hopeless at Tasks,” he insisted at the time, before adding: “Dancing on Ice is, I suspect, out of the question.”
Last month, Paul revealed that he suspected he had coronavirus, having – in his words – “started social distancing a few days too late”.