I’ll be honest, I didn’t know who he was before researching RA. He is a British comedian and actor who co-owns Pett Productions.
Mortimer’s mother also suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis; he was diagnosed in 1989. The 50-year-old actor began to draw attention to the fact that arthritis is not an old person’s disease in 2002 when he began to open up more about the ailment to the public.
In the My Kind of Day column in the latest Radio Times, Mortimer says: “I have to be careful because I have rheumatoid arthritis all over my body. Steroids keep it under control – it’s treatable, but not curable, and it flares up with a major attack every now and then.
“The doctors can only give you steroids and statistics, such as there’s a one-in-ten chance you’ll end up in a wheelchair. (My mum is crippled with it.)”
For more from Mortimer, visit this short BBC interview. For more on arthritis and interesting Still’s Disease stats from the UK, visit this Gazette Live piece.