Sir Billy Connolly: Battle with Parkinson's has left me 'near the end'
The comedian said it was an “adventure” that “doesn’t frighten me”.
He was diagnosed with the degenerative neurological condition in 2013, which impacts movement and speech.
Glasgow-born Sir Billy spoke out about the condition as part of his BBC series “Made in Scotland”.
Known for his energetic performing style, he said Parkinson’s stopped him moving around the stage like he did at his peak.
“My life, it’s slipping away and I can feel it and I should,” Sir Billy will say in the documentary airing on Friday, according to the Daily Mirror.
“I’m 75, I’m near the end. I’m a damn sight nearer the end than I am the beginning.
“But it doesn’t frighten me, it’s an adventure and it is quite interesting to see myself slipping away.”
He continues: “As bits slip off and leave me, talents leave and attributes leave.
“I don’t have the balance I used to have, I don’t have the energy I used to have.
“I can’t hear the way I used to hear, I can’t see as good as I used to. I can’t remember the way I used to remember.
“And they all came one at a time and they just slipped away, thank you.
“It is like somebody is in charge of you and they are saying ‘right, I added all these bits when you were a youth, now it is time to subtract’.”
At one point during the programme, Sir Billy reportedly asks for filming to stop as he appears to be struggling with the effects of Parkinson’s.
Speaking about the disease, he says: “It takes a certain calm to deal with, and I sometimes don’t have it. I sometimes get angry with it, but that doesn’t last long, I just collapse in laughter.”
Sir Billy, nicknamed The Big Yin, was a welder in Scotland before becoming an acclaimed comedian.
He has turned 76 since the documentary was filmed.
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