Paul Sinha: ‘Absolute dolt’ The Chase star blames Parkinson’s over Taskmaster debut

Paul Sinha, 49, took to Twitter yesterday and told his followers he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and added he will “fight it with every breath”. The Chase star is currently appearing on the Dave show Taskmaster and the quiz expert poked fun at his appearance on the show earlier this week admitting he’s “an absolute dolt when it comes to common sense”. Taking to Twitter, in view of his 115,000 followers, he wrote: “I ought to clarify for Taskmaster fans. I’m an absolute dolt when it comes to common sense, lateral thinking and visual creativity. “The illness was only a tiny aspect of why I floundered.”

Paul is currently competing alongside Love Island narrator Iain Stirling, The Inbetweeners’ Joe Thomas, Peter Kay’s Car Share’s Sian Gibson and 8 Out of 10 Cats’s Lou Sanders on Taskmaster.

However, The Chase star is at the bottom of the leaderboard with 74 points while Lou leads with 107.

The premise of the Taskmaster show sees host’s Greg Davies and Alex Horne set tasks to a group of comedians who have to display their creative competitiveness.

Fans flocked to comment on the post, sending the small-screen star well-wishes.

One person said: “You are a joy to watch on Taskmaster. And I’m so sorry about your news, I wish you many good and being well wishes.”

Another person commented: “Sorry to hear your news. I had such high hopes for you on taskmaster. But you make me laugh and really isn’t that the point?!”

While a third person added: “You have my partner and I in absolute hysterics watching you Paul. All the best for your diagnosis.”

Paul’s tweet comes after he shared the news of his illness with the caption: “I have Parkinson’s disease. I will fight this with every breath I have.”

His words accompanied by a blog post in which he said he been suffering from a frozen right shoulder and type two diabetes.

The star wrote: “Nonetheless my reaction was not one of shock. I spent May this year in New Zealand simultaneously having the comedy month of my life, and worrying about why a right-sided limp was now getting worse.

“Behind the facade of the cheerful, late night comedy festival drunk was a man deeply scared about facing the truth when back in the UK.”

”It has been a really, really tough two weeks,” Paul then said. “Cancelling my run at the Edinburgh Fringe, missing the World Quizzing Championships to have brain scans, performing club sets whilst emotionally bewildered, and of course working my way through my loved ones, delivering the bad news.

“With the diagnosis now confirmed, and a treatment plan in place, I now feel far more prepared for the new challenges ahead.”

He added: “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. Dancing On Ice is, I suspect, out of the question.”

His ITV co-star and fellow quizzer Jenny Ryan, known as The Vixen, showed her support for Paul.

She retweeted Paul’s blog post and said: ”Love you loads, brother x.”

The Chase continues tonight on ITV at 5.30pm and Taskmaster airs on Wednesday on Dave at 9pm.

source: express.co.uk