³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ reporter Rory Cellan-Jones urges 'openness' on Parkinson's
- Published
The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's technology correspondent is encouraging people to be open about their illnesses.
Rory Cellan-Jones revealed on Thursday he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Concerned TV viewers contacted the corporation after noticing his hand shaking during a report on 5G technology on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Breakfast.
"I wanted to be frank about it," he told ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 5 Live on Friday morning, urging others to do the same.
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Symptoms of Parkinson's - a degenerative brain condition - include involuntary tremors and stiff muscles.
"A few months ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and it wasn't a huge shock to me as I'd noticed a few things in the last year changing," he told 5 Live host Nicky Campbell.
"But I was aware that people were noticing on air occasionally this tremor in my right hand. Live broadcasting is always pretty hairy, because we were doing a live broadcast over 5G.
"I got on the train with my producer to head to Birmingham to do more and we had a little chat and she put the idea in my head of going public about this because she'd obviously noticed the shaking on air and few other people had.
"So I just put it out there really wanting to be up front about it because some people were worried a couple of people had actually contacted the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and suggested I should see a doctor and I'd already done that and I wanted to be frank about it."
He added: "I've had loads of lovely messages, including a few from people who've also had Parkinson's.
"One person wrote to me saying, 'I work in PR and I haven't told my clients, I'm not sure what they would think'. And I think that's really sad.
"I was with a great Parkinson's nurse the other day and she told me about a client of her's who'd been diagnosed really young and he'd lost his job because he began to slow down a bit and he hadn't told his employers about it.
"You need that information out there."
Cellan-Jones went on to say that he's now on medication and also taking part in medical research into the disease, which has so far manifested itself in a slight limp, hand tremors and his typing getting worse.
"I'm getting good treatment and the symptoms are mild right now," he wrote on Twitter a day earlier, "so I'm carrying on as normal. Onwards and upwards!"
His ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ colleagues and MPs were among those to offer messages of support on social media, with Brussels reporter Adam Fleming writing: "True public service to be so open about it. Best wishes."
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Julie Dodd, a director at Parkinson's UK, said: "Being diagnosed with Parkinson's can be a scary and isolating time, so it is fantastic to hear that Rory is receiving the treatment he needs and is able to approach his diagnosis with such a positive attitude.
"Parkinson's will affect one in 37 of us in our lifetime, but it remains a little understood condition.
"While most people associate it with a tremor, there are actually more than 40 symptoms and it affects everyone differently."
Cellan-Jones started his ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ career as a researcher on Look North and became the business and economics correspondent in 1990.
After the dot-com crash of 2000, he wrote the book Dot.bomb and has reported on the growth of websites and internet companies.
- Published22 April 2019
- Published11 April 2019
