Paul Chuckle has revealed his brother Barry even kept the extent of his illness from him, saying it was only 'fairly recently' he knew how seriously ill he was
PAUL Chuckle has revealed that his brother Barry even hid the extent of his illness from him and only told him "fairly recently" just how sick he was.
Paul made the revelation following his brother's death at the weekend from bone cancer at the age of 73.
In his first statement released since Barry’s death on August 5, Paul said: “I still can’t believe he’s gone and that we will never perform together again.
“I knew nothing of how serious his illness was until fairly recently. He always said that he wanted to die on stage and that he would work right to the end which he more or less did.
“He’d been in a lot of pain with his legs for quite a while and I thought it was sciatica which I’ve had trouble with in the past, so I knew how painful it can be.
“And he told me that he thinks that’s what he’d got.
“I also think that he knew that if myself or our manager Phil Dale found out that it was or could be more serious, we would have said to him you have to stop working.
“Plus Phil would have stopped putting work in our diaries. But our Barry kept it to himself and he kept it from me, knowing how close we were and we have always been.
“He was a trooper in every sense of the word and right to the end! Now thinking back, we did pantomime at Nottingham, lots of night club and university dates followed by 24 dates in the summer touring at major holiday centres and resorts.”
Recently, Barry's eldest brother Jimmy Patton, revealed to The Sun Online that the funnyman was "gulping for air" shortly before his death.
Jimmy said: "He needed oxygen from a tank and was gulping for air - he was in a very bad way.
"Barry had bone cancer which had spread to his lungs.
"He was ill for years, but kept it hidden.
"We knew about it, but kept it quiet, and all the family and his daughters are really hurting right now."
Following his death Barry's manager Phil Dale said in a statement : "It is with great sadness that the family announce that Barry passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by his wife Ann and all his family.
";Barry with Paul had recently filmed a new series titled Chuckle Time for Channel 5 and he said it was just like the wonderful days of filming ChuckleVision for BBC One.
"The family would like to express their thanks to the many people who have been fans of The Chuckle Brothers and they know that they will share in part the great, great loss they feel."
