Top TV personality, Paul Sinha from ITV’s The Chase, has backed a campaign for global rock star Ozzy Osbourne to become a Freeman Of Birmingham.
Supriya Kumar ‘Paul’ Sinha, a former GP who is now a professional quizzer, comedian and broadcaster, said awarding Ozzy the city’s highest honour would inspire fellow “Parkinson’s warriors” to continue living their lives in public. Both Ozzy and Paul were diagnosed with the incurable neurological condition just months apart in 2019.
Paul, a ‘Chaser’ on ITV1’s hit show The Chase since 2011, was a guest speaker at the Birmingham Press Club’s Christmas lunch at the Park Regis Hotel when he backed the campaign, launched by Westside Business Improvement District (BID) in October. In his speech, Paul used his comedy routine to explain how he lives with Parkinson’s, a condition he shares with fellow comedian Billy Connolly as well as Ozzy.
Paul said: “Ozzy Osbourne is a legend, there’s no getting away from that. If anyone is going to be given the Freedom Of Birmingham it might as well be him because he’s been on the scene for so long. As a fellow ‘Parkinson’s warrior’ I am biased – it would be a great message to send out to show people that life moves on.”
When people are reported to have a medical condition they are frequently said to be ‘suffering’, but Paul called for a rethink on the terminology used by the media. “People with Parkinson’s are all leading an individual journey and can be described in a different way,” he said. “But I don’t think that we should necessarily be called ‘suffering’ because we are absolutely trying to prove to the world that we are living with it, rather than suffering.”
Now 54, Paul also described how he’d needed coronary artery surgery after suffering a heart attack at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2023.
Ozzy is probably the world’s most famous Brummie whose global rock star image is represented on Broad Street by the Black Sabbath Bench, originally created and installed by Westside BID.
Westside BID launched its campaign for Ozzy to be made a Freeman of the City of Birmingham in October.
Brian Hughes, chairman of Westside BID. said: “It’s great that our campaign has received such relevant and thoughtful backing by Paul Sinha, which we hope will contribute to the council’s consideration of this matter in the near future.”