David “Kid” Jensen kept his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis secret for five years as he was worried that people would think less of him.
The 70-year-old DJ and former presenter of Top of the Pops at first only disclosed the diagnosis in 2013 to close friends and family.
Talking about his decision to keep the illness private, he said he was scared “people might think less of me”.
Dad-of-three Jensen said his diagnosis with Parkinson’s, of which the symptoms of shakiness, stiffness, and difficulty with walking and balance begin gradually, left him feeling a mixture of emotions.
He said: “I was very sad at first, selfishly so in a sense, you know, ‘Why me?’ It was a mixture of sadness, disappointment, and anger.”
Speaking to Let’s Talk magazine he described people’s misconceptions about the disease.
He said: “People often think of Parkinson’s as being an old person’s disease and there’s no doubt there are a lot of old people with Parkinson’s, but it’s the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world.”
The DJ, who interviewed the likes of Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson, described how he sometimes struggles.
“You have good days and bad days in the sense that your world feels like it’s coming down on you because nothing is working,” he said.
“But there are worse things that can happen, of course.”
Jensen said his Iceland-born wife Gudrun Agusta Thorarinsdottir helps him in his role as an ambassador for charity Parkinson’s UK.
“My wife has been fantastic and liaises with the charity,” he said.
“She keeps diaries for me: ‘You have to be in such-a-such a place at such-a-such time’, and that helps a lot.”
Jensen was called “Kid” as he was only 18 years old when he started at Radio Luxembourg in 1968, later joining BBC Radio 1 in 1976.
