Bob Mortimer fears he’ll never run again after ‘losing muscle function’ as he gives health battle update
COMEDY legend Bob Mortimer has shared a heartbreaking health update with fans.
Bob, 64, has been plagued by rheumatoid arthritis since he was in his twenties and also had triple bypass surgery in 2015.
This year he contracted shingles, a skin condition caused by the varicella-zoster virus which is the same virus that causes chickenpox.
He has said that his health battles have meant that he’s suffered from muscle wastage and he’s now unable to run.
The Gone Fishing star said that he estimates he’s lost eighty percent of the muscles in his legs.
Speaking to fellow comedian and friend Paul Whitehouse: “It’s been a very, very, very unhealthy year for me Paul with my shingles… And you know what – it was worse than my heart period.
“The muscles I’ve lost, I’ve lost… But other ones can compensate for it, you know what I mean?
“I can make the other muscles stronger but I have a terrible feeling I’m never going to be able to run again and you know that I used to like to run Paul.”
Clearly concerned, Paul said: “I’m really sorry about that mate.”
Bob’s health took such a turn that he was forced to pull out of Gone Fishing, with Lee Mack stepping in.
Lee wasn’t an instant hit and he controversially said: “I don’t fish. And when I say ‘I don’t fish’, I don’t mean, ‘I can’t fish – teach me, grasshopper.’ I mean, I won’t fish; I’m a vegan.”
Fans were confused by this, with one writing: “Does Lee Mack just say yes to everything? Why go on a fishing programme if you’re vegan and don’t fish?”
Seven years ago, Bob underwent a triple heart bypass after being told he had coronary heart disease.
At the time doctors warned Bob, 63, that he would die if he didn’t have the op – after they discovered some of his arteries were 95-98 percent blocked.
Bob made the revelation while recording Richard Herring’s podcast in September 2022.
Speaking at the Leicester Square Theatre, Bob said: “I am not very well.
“I am not very healthy at the moment.”
When asked about his health following his heart troubles, Bob continued: “I did a show last week, a fishing show and there was only two and a half days filming and I did it Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday and I was in hospital on the Saturday.
“I am sorry I should not have said that should I? It’s a real downer.”
A source close to Bob told The Sun: “After a brief assessment Bob was deemed fit and well and he is now back fishing.”
Bob went on to make light of his ill health and joked about his previous life choices – which included him having 16 sugars in his tea.
He added: “I think because I was a smoker and an incredibly fast runner and a very dramatic dancer and I put that all in my younger years.
“I think I am about 10 years ahead of myself with my body ageing.”
The funnyman, who found fame with his comedy partnership with Vic Reeves was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when he was in his mid-twenties.
Last year he said on stage: “In my mid-twenties I got struck down with rheumatoid arthritis.
“I just woke up and it was like, ‘bang’.
“I have been free of it since I have been 34 and it came back 10 days ago.
“It is really sad for me to know whether it will go. Yes I might be fat but actually I am on steroids.”
He added: “At around 60 I like turned off and did not want anything different to happen.
“But it takes until you are 60 to realise all the things you could have done.
“When your bones start aching and when you hear people say: ‘I am going to do this,’ – you aren’t going to do them. You have got to do them now. There is no going back.
“At my age we all feel 47 but then your body packs in.”