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KNOCKED OUT
My brother died from silent killer unable to speak – I’m taking steps to stop it happening to me, says Chris Eubank
The former boxing champ admits he fears he could be at risk of the killer condition
CHRIS EUBANK has spoken for the first time about late brother Simon’s dementia torment – which left him trapped inside his own body unable to speak or move.
Simon, who was a boxer like Chris, died aged just 61 last month, five years after his diagnosis. He spent his final years in a care home.
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Chris, 57, is acutely aware of his susceptibility to the disease after his stellar career as a fighter — including being a world champion for almost six years.
Paying tribute to his brother, Chris says: “Simon had frontal lobe dementia.
“He had been living locked in his own body for the last two years. To see someone spasming all the time they’re awake for a year and a half is soul-destroying.
“He was in a specialist care home. There was a tremendous pressure for his family and I just think of what he would have had to manage, going through that and not being able to move in his own body.
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“My brother always showed me love, he always protected me.
“Simon saved my life once. He is the one who truly loved me and that is why I recited Corinthians 1:13 at his funeral.
“It talks about how love is the most powerful of all things, and I recited that for him and for what he did for me.
“In many respects, it is mercy that he has left us. He is truly at rest now.”
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Chris says he does not fear the disease which took his brother’s life so prematurely.
Instead he works hard to keep his brain active in a bid to stay one step ahead.
Chris says: “You have to train your brain. What I have found to be good is committing to memory philosophies and then reciting them to audiences.
“I have combatted it in that way.
“I trained myself throughout my career to be cognitive, always keeping my memory in shape by committing those poems to memory.
“Throughout my career I was clever. I got hit a few times, no doubt. I’ve had some terrible damage done but but nowhere like a lot of fighters.
“You train yourself to a level where you are skilled enough to take the least amount of punishment. At the same time it’s got to be enough that when you’re having it given to you, the punishment, that you can withstand it.”
Simon’s death was a double blow to Chris, who lost his son Sebastian, aged just 29, following a heart attack two years ago.
He says: “I will never get over losing Sebastian. That was my boy.
“You go through weeks of being fine. Then all of a sudden it comes into my mind and I will cry.
“Spiritually he is in a better place, I know that and I am at peace with that.
“But the physicality of that loss I will never get over. Ever.”
After losing his brother, Chris has now taken Simon’s son Harlem under his wing and is now guiding his boxing career. The 30-year-old super-lightweight boxer is undefeated in 18 bouts and looks set for big success on the world stage.
Chris says: “One time I visited Simon and I was talking to him about Harlem and I told him he was going to be fighting in a few weeks.
‘His eyes lit up’
“After the fight I went to visit him and showed him a video and told Simon that Harlem had won. Simon couldn’t talk, but as I showed him the video, a glow came over him and his eyes lit up.
“He showed me in his own way how delighted he was at how his son was coming along.
“At the funeral, Harlem and I came together and I think it was spiritually ordained for me to take Harlem as my own son.”
Harlem’s first bout under Chris’s leadership will take place on November 10 in Brighton against German Timo Schwarzkopf.
Chris says: “We are going to get to the top quickly because we are already there — the world just didn’t know it.
“Harlem is 18 fights unbeaten and I cannot see anyone in Europe, the Commonwealth or Britain beating him. There is not a better fighter in the United Kingdom in terms of boxing ability.”
Chris was the driving force behind the boxing career of his eldest son Chris Eubank Jnr, 34, until last October.
A rift emerged between them ahead of his bout against Conor Benn — the son of Chris’s long-time ring rival Nigel Benn — and Chris Snr left his son’s team.
Speaking about his split, Chris admits: “You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make that horse drink.”
Raised in South London with his twin brothers Simon and Peter, Chris went on to become one of the greatest boxers in the world. He was super-middleweight and middleweight world champion — with 45 wins, including 23 by knockout — during his incredible 13-year career.
Chris, who is also dad to Emily, 29, and Joseph, 27, retired following one final fight with junior heavyweight champion Carl Thompson in 1998, where Chris was stopped for the first and only time. He went on to have a lucrative career in television, appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2001 before taking part in I’m A Celebrity in 2015.
But Chris says it is his work as a police marshal in the US that he is most proud of. He was sworn in by Louisiana State Police in July 2018.
‘Life is to be lived’
Chris says: “The joyous thing I have done in my retirement is to be a deputy marshal. The TV shows I do sporadically, but my love is in protecting those who are weaker than others.
“My job is to go into churches and schools and talk to young people about staying on the straight and narrow and protecting others.
“I have been told from the reports coming back from the parents to the marshal’s office that I have made a big difference.
“I said I would do the marshal’s office proud. I have done this and I will continue to do so.”
Three-times-married Chris now lives a private existence at his home in Louisiana with his new partner, who prefers to remain out of the spotlight. He is a devoted grandfather to Sebastian’s son, Raheem, two, and says his role in life is to guide him.
Chris smiles: “He will be obedient to the rules of law and respect his parents — I don’t play when it comes to that.
“I was born to be a warrior and Harlem was born to be a warrior. We are not sure yet if Raheem has been born to be the king of a sport, which is a boxer.” Chris’ close connection to Raheem, who lives in the Middle East with his mother Salma Abdelati, is testament to the love he had for Sebastian.
Despite his grief, Chris believes life is to be lived — and to be cherished. He adds: “Sebastian is a clearest example of what we are talking about — how good life is.
“When tears come out of my eyes, that is the joy of living.
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“Not that I am crying for happiness’ sake, I have been crying because there has been an emotional connection and the emotional connection allows you to enjoy the peace of life. I had 29 years with my boy, those 29 years I did not have enough of him.
“It has taught me how to cherish my loved ones even more.”
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