Scott’s mum, Sandra, has been describing the panic attacks that her son experienced when he started his career in radio, and how he has helped her through suffering with Multiple Sclerosis.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Sandra told the newspaper: “Scott was always a really shy boy. As a child, he had a huge problem with anxiety. When I drove him to the radio station where he got his first job, he couldn’t actually get out the car. His anxiety attack was that bad.”
She explained: “Whenever he had one of these attacks, I would just sit with him, talk to him… maybe coax him out of the car. I knew that once he had got to work, he’d be OK. To his credit, he was just determined that it wouldn’t get the better of him.”
But this description of Scott couldn’t me a million miles away from the afternoon DJ that we hear on the air. She says that it was his determination that has got him where he is. She says that twenty years on from djing that he still suffers from anxiety attacks but “he’s just learnt to deal with them a lot better.”
Sandra also talks about suffering from MS – the same illness that his former assistant producer Beccy now suffers with. She says: “Whenever I go out with him, he thinks of absolutely everything. He knows what I need… what I’m thinking.”
Describing Scott as a ‘great son’ and her ‘best friend’ she also talks about her concerns for the future. “I just hope I never become a burden to him. We speak a couple of times a week and we see each other regularly, even though I live down in Eastleigh, in Hampshire and his diary is crazy. I always worry that he doesn’t take enough time out for himself.”
Talking about his mum’s MS, Scott told the Sunday Times: “Mum was diagnosed with MS about six years ago. But even before she had the tests, I knew something wasn’t right, almost like a sixth sense. When she went for the scan, I remember thinking: ‘What am I going to do if she has a brain tumour?'”
But after these initial thoughts, he said he and his mother were somewhat relieved with the MS diagnoses, but that the consultant had indicated this was a progressive illness, and it would effect his mum differently as time went on.
“The other thing he said was not to be afraid. Since then, I’ve always tried to make things easier for her, particularly when it comes to getting about. I’ll have a car for her or a wheelchair if we have a long walk, that kind of thing. We don’t dwell on it, though.”
The full interview in the Sunday Times can be found online here. Scott is a is a patron of the Multiple Sclerosis Society which offers more information about the illness at www.mssociety.org.uk. A summary of Glamour’s interview with Beccy about MS can be found on this website.
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