Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers has died at the age of 66, his heartbroken co-star Si King revealed today.
The TV chef had announced he was receiving treatment for cancer in May 2022, but never specified which type.
Announcing his death on social media, King said he passed away yesterday with his family and friends by his side.
King said he ‘will miss him every day and the bond and friendship we shared over half a lifetime’.
Here MailOnline details his health history.
Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers (right) has died at the age of 66, his heartbroken co-star Si King (left) revealed today. The TV chef had announced he was receiving treatment for cancer in May 2022, but never specified which type
Announcing his death on social media, King said he passed away yesterday with his family and friends by his side. Pictured, Dave with his wife, Liliana Orzac, who he met while filming the series in Romania. They married in 2011
King said he ‘will miss him every day and the bond and friendship we shared over half a lifetime’
Benign arachnoid cyst
In 1998 Myers was diagnosed with a cyst on his brain after suffering migraines and memory loss.
In a candid 2018 interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Myers told how that year was the ‘worst’ of his life, after he lost his fiancée to cancer just months earlier.
Scans revealed a shadow on his brain and Myers was later diagnosed with a benign arachnoid cyst.
‘After what had happened to her (his fiancée), I was convinced I was going to die’, he said.
Emergency surgery successfully drained the cyst.
He added: ‘Weirdly, the operation had an amazing beneficial effect on my hair.
‘I’d suffered alopecia since the age of eight and always been bald, but after that my hair grew.’
Arachnoid cysts — the most common type of brain cyst — are thought to affect around 0.5 per cent of the population.
It is a fluid-filled sac that is often caused by a split in the arachnoid membrane, the tissue that surrounds and protects the brain.
Glaucoma
Myers had also previously spoken about other health struggles, including discovering he had glaucoma in 2012 – an eye condition that can lead to blindness.
In the same 2018 interview, he revealed he had originally dismissed the condition as a bad hangover.
He said: ‘When my local optician told me during a check-up in 2012 she thought I might have glaucoma, I said: “I don’t think so, I had a night out last night and I’ve probably just got a bad hangover”.’
Known as the ‘silent thief of sight’, the condition is usually caused by fluid slowly building up in the front part of the eye, which increases pressure inside it.
As a result, the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, becomes damaged.
Around 700,000 people in the UK and more than 2million in the US are living with glaucoma, which is usually symptomless in its early stages.
It mostly affects those in their seventies and over, but people of any age can get it.
The condition is diagnosed by opticians during routine eye exams, which measure the pressure inside the eye.
Treatment aims to lower this pressure through prescription eye drops, oral medicines, laser retreatment, surgery or combination of these options.
Myers had also previously spoken about other health struggles, including discovering he had glaucoma in 2012 – an eye condition that can lead to blindness. In the same 2018 interview, he revealed he had originally dismissed the condition as a bad hangover. Pictured, Myers on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 with partner Karen Hauer
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (C) and Hairy Bikers Dave Myers (L) and Si King (R) attend the British Food Fortnight Secondary School Competition at Clarence House, on January 27, 2011
Pre-diabetic
Writing in the Daily Mail in 2020, Myers revealed a routine GP check up in 2009 found his blood sugar levels were ‘far too high’ and he was told he was pre-diabetic.
He was prescribed metformin tablets and drugs to control his blood pressure and advised to lose some weight.
In 2012, he was introduced to metabolic health expert Professor Roy Taylor from Newcastle University, while filming a new series of The Hairy Bikers.
Professor Taylor’s groundbreaking research has shown that rapid weight loss can help reverse diabetes.
Myers wrote: ‘Off camera one day, he quietly took me aside and told me if I lost weight I could reverse the pre-diabetic state, get off the drugs and effectively protect myself against getting full-blown diabetes.
‘Just two months into the experiment, Roy advised me to stop taking my diabetes tablets and to come off my blood pressure pills because I’d clearly lost enough weight that my organs were beginning to function normally again.
‘That was a real thrill.’
He added: ‘Roy’s diagnosis was confirmed at a check-up six months after I started losing weight, when tests showed my blood sugar levels were smack‑bang in the normal category.
‘I’ve worked hard to maintain that weight loss and I’ve had my blood sugar levels tested every six months for the past seven years and the results have remained normal.’
Unspecified cancer
Myers has never specified what type of cancer after announcing he was receiving chemotherapy treatment in May 2022.
Following his diagnosis, Myers briefly took a break from work before filming his last Hairy Bikers series which sees him travel west across Britain from Scotland to Devon.
During their Christmas special, which aired in December, he revealed chemo was ‘debilitating’.
‘The first lot of chemo was very, very destructive,’ he said, recalling how he was told by an oncologist that he would be ‘taken to the edge’.
‘You don’t realise what an impact it can have, the debilitating effects kick in quite quickly.’
He added: ‘By the second lot of chemo, my hair came out. It really is quite radical, it’s not a gradual moulting, your hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, everything just goes.’
After his 37th round of chemotherapy, viewers also saw the emotional moment Dave got back on his bike for the first time.
He had previously told how at times he was too ill to walk and unable to ride his motorcycle after his diagnosis. He and King were left in tears last year when he was able to ride again.
Earlier this month, in the first episode of the eight-part series ‘The Hairy Bikers Go West’ he also shared that he was diagnosed with anorexia after losing so much weight during his cancer treatment.
