The former wife of boxer Muhammad Ali, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, has revealed that the pro boxer suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Dyslexia- a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading, but hid that fact well in living out his everyday life.
Camacho-Ali said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, where she also spoke of the importance of athletes of all sports prioritising their health to avoid any major issues later in life.
Speaking of the former husband’s health struggles, she said, “He had different issues. There’s, I heard of ADD or something he had as a kid. Dyslexia, he had that. But Ali, he would make a joke and make you take your focus off of it, by joking. So, a lot of times, you don’t see the dyslexia because he knows how to turn you a different direction to get your mind off it, you don’t see it. But most importantly, when he was with me, he didn’t show any signs of Parkinson’s at the time. It was only after me he started picking up the signs.”
She then advised that athletes should take main priority of their health, both mentally and physically as she noted, “Whatever’s in the cards that’s meant for us to have, whether it’s liver, a heart problem, heart failure, arthritis, all you can do is, the best thing is to try to advise the young people to get annual check-ups because you can catch something before it gets out of hand. So, if you would be diagnosed of anything, if you go and just get a manual check-up every year like me, I have people my age that’s in bad shape- hypertension, lupus, allergies, you know, and diabetes. And so, I had gained a lot of weight too, and I was diagnosed with Borderline diabetes. Right away, when I found that out, I lost 72 pounds immediately.”
Camacho-Ali, who arrived Nigeria on Thursday for the assessment of the programme for the 50th anniversary of Rumble In The Jungle Match, revealed why she decided that the programme should hold in Nigeria as she said, “Mohammed and I, we helped, as a team, create and build a legacy for many years, and we often said, he said he wanted to go back to Nigeria with me, and that didn’t happen. But you know what? I felt his spirit. His spirit is here, because we talked of Nigeria very often. And I’m so excited to be here, thanks to the blessings of God. Not only that, but some of the people who put this event particular together are rumbling Nigeria is long overdue. And it’s so many great athletes that come out of Nigeria that I have met along the way that come up to this point, the strategy of mental health raised around the world, and our young athletes right now need participation in helping them get their health, helping them realise that at a young age, you should be careful about what you eat, what you drink, how you act, because it brings a toll on you.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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