disease

Graeme Souness is one of ten celebrity contestants on Gary Lineker’s new ITV game show The Box

Graeme Souness is appearing in new ITV show The Box on Saturday night.

The Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit, 73, is one of ten celebrity contestants on Gary Lineker’s new game show. Also joining the line-up are Danny Aarons, Ellie Taylor, Joey Essex, JB Gill, Jenny Ryan, John Bercow, Ranvir Singh, Sara Davies and Shakira Khan on the new ITV show.

It comes as The Box crew were forced to fly a drone to find a ‘missing’ star during filming and The Chase’s Jenny, 44, admitted she felt ‘guilty’ over brutal decisions in the new ITV show.

Away from the ITV show, Graeme has spoken candidly about his health over the years after he was diagnosed with a heart condition aged just 38, which left him asking ‘how can this happen to me’.

Graeme shared his experience with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), revealing what life was like following his diagnosis and treatment for heart disease as a young, physically fit man.

While managing Liverpool in 1991, the Scot was struggling to sleep and experiencing chest pains in bed. With a family history of heart disease, alarm bells were ringing. He underwent an electrocardiogram (ECG) – a straightforward test used to assess the heart’s rhythm and electrical activity.

Following the results, he was referred for an angiogram, a specialised X-ray procedure used to examine blood vessels. Despite displaying no obvious symptoms, Graeme was diagnosed with three blocked arteries and coronary heart disease. Just five days later, he was facing open heart surgery.

Speaking on the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) podcast, the Ticker Tapes in 2021, he said at the time: “At the time I was training like the professional football players and was only 38-years-old. I kept thinking ‘how can this happen to me?’

“I looked after myself in terms what I ate and drank and had trained from the age of 15 – I trained as vigorously as a professional athlete. I didn’t carry any weight, I never had done. How had this happened to me?

“I didn’t have the obvious symptoms that there was something badly wrong with my heart so I’m so glad I got checked when I did. It’s because of this that I’m here 30 years later.

“If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. At that time I was a very fit, young man. If you’re concerned about your family history, go and get checked. You must get yourself checked.”

In 2015, Graeme suffered a heart attack and has since become a British Heart Foundation (BHF) ambassador, throwing himself into numerous campaigns and events, as well as making visits to BHF research laboratories.

Graeme said of the terrifying health scare: “My heart attack was very scary but I’m still here, able to talk about it thank goodness. Fortunately, it hasn’t caused me any lasting problem.

“It’s so important to go to your doctor and get yourself diagnosed if you’re at all concerned. You owe it to yourself and those close to you – your wife, your children and your grandchildren. They want you around as long as possible.”

The Box launches on Saturday 5th September, with Episode 2 airing on Sunday 6th September, on ITV1, ITVX, STV & STV Player.

As many as 97.7% of NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 could have had brain disease related to repeated blows to the head, a new study says.

Researchers looked at 878 former players who died during that period, with 235 having donated their brains to research.

Of those, 215 were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease which can only be diagnosed after death.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, external, also found dementia was common among brain donors.

“We and others have shown that in NFL players, specifically, there is about a four times higher rate of death from neurodegenerative disease than the general population,” said the report’s lead author Daniel Daneshvar, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

“These findings indicate that NFL players have a higher prevalence of CTE at death than has been previously shown in multiple community based studies.”

Researchers calculated a “conservative minimum” of CTE prevalence among those who died in the six-year period to be 24.5% – rising to a “maximum” 97.7%.

They have urged the NFL to take prevention measures to reduce repetitive head impacts across all levels of the sport.

LEE Andrews’ jail is allegedly facing an outbreak of a very itchy disease, which is said to be ‘spreading like wildfire’ amongst inmates.

The husband of Katie Price – who The Sun recently exposed as a conman in an explosive dossier – has been locked up in Dubai’s Al-Awir prison since last month, and is thought to remain behind bars.

As if things couldn’t be worse for the self-proclaimed ‘millionaire businessman’, it’s now been said that a disease is making its way around the notorious prison.

This was claimed in a new joint podcast between Lee’s ex, Alana Percival, and a social media account which goes by ‘The Chaos Corner’.

The woman behind Chaos Corner said during the episode: “Do you know what’s happening in jail?

“They call it, the inmates in there call it ‘The Itchies’, so, they call it The Itchies and it’s spreading like wildfire in the prison and loads of people have got it.”

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As Alana then asked what the disease actually was, her co-host replied that it started off as a rash between the fingers before going ‘scaly’ and spreading.

She then said it was ‘1000% scabies’, going on to joke that Lee would be leaving prison with the skin condition.

Scabies is a contagious skin infestation caused by microscopic mites that lay eggs on the upper level of skin.

The prison Lee is serving time in is the notorious Al Awir prison in Dubai, which is described as the UAE’s ‘Alcatraz’ and previously said to be ‘lice ridden’.

Lee’s ex, Alana, who was on the podcast, was his most recent partner before Katie – with Lee proposing to her just four months before marrying the former glamour model.

His current stint in jail is Lee’s second time behind bars this year, with Katie remaining in the UK and yet to speak out on the situation.

She flew straight back into his arms following his last release from prison, but has remained more silent this second time around.

Katie is, however, still wearing her wedding ring after placing it back on this week despite being spotted without it just days before.