Kid Jensen: Why I kept Parkinson’s secret for 5 years

DJ David “Kid” Jensen kept his diagnosis with Parkinson’s hidden for five years because he feared people would think less of him.

The former Top Of The Pops and Radio 1 presenter, 70, said he felt “sadness, disappointment and anger” when told he had the illness.

Initially he only confided in close friends and family as he was worried about the reaction – and the stigma that it is an old person’s disease.

David revealed his symptoms – shaking, stiffness and problems with walking and balance – began gradually before his 2013 diagnosis.

He said: “I was very sad at first, selfishly so in a sense.Why me? It was a mixture of sadness, disappointment and anger all at once.”

In an interview with Let’s Talk magazine the dad of three also described people’s misconceptions about the disease.

He said: “People often think of Parkinson’s as

‘I was selfish’...David an old person’s disease. No doubt there are a lot of old people with Parkinson’s, but it’s the fastest growing neurological disease in the world.” The Canadian, who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson in his heyday, added: “You have good days and bad days – your world feels like it’s coming down on you because nothing is working. But there are worse things that can happen to somebody.” David, who has shows on Jazz FM and baby boomer station Boom, said his Icelandic wife Gudrun helps him in his role as an ambassador for Parkinson’s UK: “My wife has been fantastic – she liaises with the charity to make life a lot easier for me. She keeps diaries for me, ‘You have to be in such-and-such place at such-and-such time’. “That kind of thing helps me a lot.”