Coronation Street star Rob Mallard says tremor is getting worse

Coronation Street actor Rob Mallard has revealed that his health condition, an essential tremor diagnosed when he was 14, has deteriorated in recent years.

The 30-year-old, who plays Daniel Osbourne in the ITV soap, told Express:

“It’s got worse. It used to just be my hand but now the whole of my arm shakes, my legs shake, the back of my neck and head shake. It looks like I’m saying ‘no’ to everything all the time.”

Although Mallard’s condition negatively impacts his day-to-day life, he said that members of his Corrie cast and bosses have helped him cope.

“I manage it with humour really, because if you don’t, it can get frustrating. You get very wound up in yourself so I just kind of take it with a humorous perspective. With work, they’re all aware of it.

“If there’s something that comes up or if I need to do something I’ll usually just practise and practise and practise. But if I do shake and it’s very obvious I’ll just stop and say ‘can I go again?'”

An essential tremor is a neurological (brain and nerve) disorder that causes involuntary shaking of body parts.

While Mallard was diagnosed with essential tremor as a teen, he lived with it for around 10 years before he truly understood the condition.

His doctors “downplayed” his initial diagnosis, and he finally realised how bad it was when he went back to the doctor at 24.

He first spoke about his tremor publicly in 2018 on This Morning, noting that:

“I was diagnosed with an essential tremor when I was 14, but I didn’t realise how serious it was until I was in my mid 20s. You assume with shaking it’s an old people thing. It’s common in young people and often misdiagnosed as anxiety, or people may think you’re withdrawing from something, whereas it’s actually neurones in the brain that are firing incorrectly, causing involuntary shaking.”