The much-loved football personality was on Thursday's show to promote his new book My Unbelievable Life and he shared with viewers his health battle in recent years.

But despite the crazy tales, it hasn't all been plain sailing. Kammy had a tough upbringing, faced racism during his playing career and has, in recent years, dealt with a rare brain condition – apraxia – that has affected his speech and seen him say goodbye to Sky Sports. Relating his battle against the condition, Kammy shows how he’s met every challenge with courage, determination and his infectious smile. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I was gripped by palpitations. I’d been doing live match reports on Sky for more than 20 years. My appearances on Soccer Saturday are what I’m known for more than anything. And yet now, facing Jeff Stelling down the camera, my tongue felt as if it had swelled to double its size. He became terrified of having to talk – offscreen as well as on. And all the time he was telling people nothing was wrong. The pretence must have been exhausting. “Well, it was playing with my mind. You go crazy. The first thing when you wake up is: can I speak today? If the delivery man comes to the door, can I talk to him? The old me used to have a laugh and a joke with him. Now I’m a bumbling old man who can’t get his words out. My self-esteem was at its lowest ever point and that’s when you think of crazy stuff in your head.”But in my new world of unknowns there was one absolute certainty. I was finished as a football presenter. It was when he went to spend time with the animals that the darkest thoughts came. “You think you’re a burden and the family will be better off without you. That came at the height of my condition, 18 months in, when I thought it was dementia. I didn’t want to be a burden – I’d spent my life looking after them.” Has he had a stroke?’ wondered another. As ever, if anyone asked how I was, I’d insist I was OK. And actually every now and again a good day would come along to fool me that I was worrying unduly – everything was going to be all right.

Presenter, commentator, (sometimes masked) singer, footballer, manager and campaigner, Kammy has done it all. His irrepressible enthusiasm – and a couple of legendary gaffes on Sky Sports – have seen him become broadcasting royalty. Kamara adored his broadcasting career, and he assumed that was done for at the very least. “Having played or managed for 24 years, to go into TV was happy days. All your birthdays have come at once. And all it required was for me to go on and be myself. Just go and have a laugh. So once that was taken away, it felt there was no me any more. It’s stupid, but you think, ‘Where have I gone? Where is he? I don’t like the person I’ve become.’ All those things go through your head.” It is a good honest read. His voice comes over loud and clear and his stories and anecdotes are as funny as his commentaries and reports from his football matches were. He is open but not bitter about the horrendous racism in football in years gone by, almost underplaying it but managing to give the reader an honest view of how unpleasant and unacceptable it was. There is nothing to dislike about the man nor his autobiography.But when the walls are closing in it's easy to feel differently. I hope by being honest and talking about it, I can help others see that there is always another way out. There is always hope. You just have to let other people help you see it." Many viewers took to X to offer their support to the football icon. We saw @MzAtoB post: “Chris Kamara is such a lovely guy. Someone cuddle him immediately please. It’s breaking my heart seeing him upset.” He played more than 200 games across two stints at Swindon, and also played for Brentford, Stoke, Leeds, Luton, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough and the Bantams.

The next day, I began the first of 28 one-hour sessions in the ‘wonder’ machine. In front of me was a tube with two open ends which transmits radio frequency and magnetic fields into the body as the patient lies inside. Unlike an MRI scanner, though, there is no noise, to the extent you are actually left wondering exactly what is happening for the hour you’re in there. Following his football career on both the pitch and touchline, he became best known for his work as a pundit and presenter on Sky Sports. Good Morning Britain host Ben Shephard, a friend of Kammy, who has worked with him down the years, received praise for the support he has offered the former footballer. Now, he says, it’s time for him to repay the faith and love that people have shown in him, by campaigning for others with similar conditions. “I want to talk about apraxia, make people aware of the condition and show sufferers that they can still live a good life, whatever struggles they face.” But, he says, it’s equally important not to sound glib: “I don’t want people to think, ‘You spent two years in denial and now you’re saying be yourself and come out about it.’ I understand all that, but I can only preach from experience. I got by because everybody rallied behind me and said, ‘We don’t care how you speak, you’re Kammy and we love you.’”Yet here I was, in his final moments, exposing it all. It was a mistake. I should have kept it to myself. I have very few regrets in life, but that is definitely one. My biggest regret is that I wasn’t there the night Mum died in 2003. She was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer during my early days on Goals on Sunday, and I was busy as an established part of Soccer Saturday and Soccer AM. I got my priorities all wrong.

I’m a man who has always wanted to help, to provide, to love and nurture those around me. And now I could only see myself as a burden. A shell of the man I used to be that they would be left to look after. Seeing myself like that was like staring into an abyss. I could never reconcile that image in my head. It was unthinkable. I guess this book would only ever appeal to those who know of Chris Kamara either through his football playing days, or as a manager, or as a TV presenter (of football!). Kamara is talking to me from his home in Wakefield. He looks the same as ever – big, jolly face, pencil-moustache and a grin like he’s just won the lottery. It’s only when he talks that you notice the difference.The former midfielder, who also captained Stoke, now runs the Proper Football podcast alongside Shephard on BBC Sounds. He received his honour from the Prince of Wales at an official ceremony at Windsor Castle in March. Just days before he met the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Martin Love, at City Hall.