Dynamo says arthritis disease has left him struggling to perform magic in first TV interview since Crohn's illness revelation

Magician Dynamo has revealed that arthritis caused by his Crohn's disease has left him struggling to perform his tricks.

In his first interview since revealing the impact the illness was having on his body last month, the popular magician said the disease had taken “quite a toll”.

He was diagnosed with Crohn's aged 14 but over the last eight months his struggles have escalated, the 35-year-old told BBC Breakfast.

Dynamo said he has put on two stone as a result of “all the medication” used for treatment, while it has also caused him to develop arthritis.

Dynamo on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning
BBC Breakfast

His problems with Crohn’s got worse after a “bad bout” of food poisoning which left him in hospital, he said.

He said: “It’s definitely had quite a toll on my body, I’ve put on like two stone, which is quite strange.

“I’ve put on a lot of weight, also one of the main impacts for me is it’s given me arthritis which, for a magician, not being able to use my hands like I normally would… I’m working with a physio, I’m working with doctors to find and get the right medication, the right treatment so hopefully I can come back on and show you some new magic in the future.”

Despite his ill-health, Dynamo said that he is planning a tour to perform his magic again later in the year.

He said: “I’m always working on new ideas and I’ve got many ways to do magic, some of them don’t use as much dexterity, they use my mind.

“I’ve taken this time to kind of revaluate my approach to magic and also to certain elements of life in general.”

It comes after he received an outpouring of support from fans after he posted a video on social media last month discussing Crohn's.

Explaining his reasons for posting the video, he said: “Some photos had been taken of me that I knew were going to get out there, out of my control, and I looked quite different from my usual self so I thought it’s worth letting people know the real story before they hear a different story from someone else.

“It was amazing the actual response it got, I didn’t expect that at all, it’s good that’s it’s been able to inspire other people with similar conditions to speak out about it and get more attention to it.

“I personally have never let it make me feel ashamed to talk about it, it’s just life, it’s life for a lot more people than we think so it’s really good that it’s inspired people to share their stories and hopefully it helps them with their confidence to just feel comfortable within themselves.”

Dynamo revealed that after having to take a step back from performing his focus has been on trying to get Syrian refugees in Lebanon an education.

He added: “It caused a lot of side effects but I’ve not really let it hold me back, as much as possible I’ve been getting out there and doing stuff.

“I recently went out to Lebanon to try and help the Syrian refugee children get into education because there’s a big crisis of them not getting educated right now.

“It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time but because I constantly had commitments… it allowed me the freedom to do that because I wasn’t able to perform much magic because of my illness so it allowed me to go out there and take a bit of time and do something to help other people and really focus my mind on not thinking about my illness and thinking about helping other people.

"Being out there it really put into perspective what the Syrian children and the Syrian families are having to go through and makes my illness feel like nothing in comparison.”

He said his focus was on getting half a million Syrian refugee children into school by the end of the year.

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