CORONATION Street’s Street Rob Mallard has admitted ‘nothing can be done’ in a bleak health update on a degenerative illness.
The actor, 31, plays Daniel Osbourne in the ITV soap but has battled with an essential tremor since he was 14 years old.
Rob appeared on Morning Live on Wednesday to discuss the nervous system disorder, which causes involuntary shaking.
He told hosts Gethin Jones and Helen Skelton how it was first noticed when he was at secondary school.
He said: “I went to the doctors and did roughly a year testing things – thyroid, brain scans because they were really unsure what it was.
“They came back and said I had an essential tremor and there was nothing they could do for me to ‘come back if your symptoms get worse and we can try and control them’.”
He continued: “Because they told me there was nothing I could do about it, I just put it to the back of my mind and tried to forget about it.
“It wasn’t until I got into my early 20s that it progressed and really got worse that I thought I should really look into this.
“That was when I really got the full scope of it and realised it could be quite degenerative over time.”
Helen asked how it affects his career and Rob recalled an audition he had for Emmerdale before he landed his role on Coronation Street.
He said: “Before I did Coronation Street I was in a couple of episodes of Emmerdale and the audition process for that, my agent rang me up and said ‘Strange one, they really like you, they’d like to offer you the part but they thought you were very nervous and they’re a bit worried about how that will work when you’re on set’.
“So at that point nobody knew what I had so I had to come out to my agent who then explained it to the casting at Emmerdale, and then they said ‘has he got coping strategies?’ and I said yes absolutely, it’s just because of this being a high pressure situation in the audition, that’s why and so they gave me the job and that’s what lead to Coronation Street.
“So it almost cut me off at that point, so if I hadn’t have been honest about it then I might not have got the job.”
Helen then pointed out how most people would never know he had the tremor but Rob said that because it’s an essential, active tremor, it’s when he engages his body to do something that it reveals itself.
He then picked up the glass of water on the table in front of him, and his hand was visibly shaking.
He said: “So picking drinks up, clutch foot on a hill…now there’s a massive trend on soaps of characters texting each other all the time and then they have to get close ups on it and that’s the hardest thing to do because you have to hold it for about 10 seconds so people can get a good read of what it says, and I can’t hold my hand still for that amount of time.
Essential tremor occurs during active movement (action tremor) or while holding fixed postures or poses (postural tremor). It is much less likely to occur at rest (resting tremor).
Essential tremor typically affects both hands, but one side often shows more symptoms.
Symptoms may be mild at first, and may come and go. Tremors may get worse over time; how this happens varies from person to person.
Essential tremor can affect any body part, including:
“So we have to come up with loads of tricks like zooming in close and I’ll rest my hands on something and then they’ll film it that way.
“I think they even once used someone else’s hands.”
Coronation Street airs on ITV1 and is available on ITVX. Morning Live airs weekdays on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.
