It’s Roger and out..
FIT as he may be for 56, Roger Black knows his limits.
So although the ex-Olympic medallist is no stranger to reality shows, don’t expect to see him on, say, Celebrity SAS. Much as he loves that show.
“I wouldn’t pass the medical,” the exathlete says. “They wouldn’t risk it!”
That’s because Roger has, to put it bluntly, a dodgy ticker. Or, if you prefer the official terminology, valve disease.
Not that this is a recent development. He’s had it all his life. It’s just that, well, you know, he’s not getting any younger. So best not be silly now.
“They discovered it at a school medical when I was 11,” he tells me.
“It’s never held me back. I’ve just had to be monitored annually ever since.”
“But you can have the same diagnosis and have very different symptoms.” Now Roger is on a mission on behalf of the charity Heart Valve Voice to encourage over55s to get checked out by their GP.
So did he not worry whenever he stepped out on a running track?
“To be honest, I rarely thought about it,” he tells me. “As an athlete, you’re obviously having to focus.”
Fortunately, Roger’s condition hasn’t ruled him out of other reality shows.
He was part of the Strictly line-up way back in series two, in 2004, eventually going out in the quarter-final.
“There were only two people who could really dance,” he recalls.
“Jill Halfpenny, who won it, and Denise Lewis. The rest of us were either average or crap.”
And he’s equally selfeffacing about his stint on Celebrity MasterChef, two years later,
Although he reached the final, along with Hardeep Singh Kohli and eventual winner Matt Dawson, Roger insists he was “by far the worst” of the three.
“That mystery ingredients round? I was shocking,” he chuckles.
●See heartvalve voice.com for info.