Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers has died at the age of 66, his heartbroken co-star Si King revealed today.
The television chef had announced that he was receiving cancer treatment in May 2022, but never specified what 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 for half a lifetime.”
Here MailOnline details your 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 television chef had announced that he was receiving cancer treatment in May 2022, but he never specified what type.
Announcing his death on social media, King said he passed away yesterday with his family and friends by his side. In the photo, Dave with his wife, Liliana Orzac, whom 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 for half a lifetime.”
Benign arachnoid cyst
In 1998, Myers was diagnosed with a brain cyst after suffering from migraines and memory loss.
In a candid 2018 interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Myers said that year was the “worst” of his life, after losing 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 happened to her (his fiancée), I was convinced she was going to die,’ he said.
Emergency surgery successfully drained the cyst.
He added: ‘Strangely, the operation had a surprising beneficial effect on my hair.
“I suffered from alopecia since I was eight years old and I was always bald, but then my hair grew back.”
Arachnoid cysts, the most common type of brain cyst, are thought to affect about 0.5 percent of the population.
It is a fluid-filled sac that is often caused by a division in the arachnoid membrane, the tissue that surrounds and protects the brain.
Glaucoma
Myers had also previously spoken out about other health issues, including discovering in 2012 that he had glaucoma, an eye condition that can lead to blindness.
In the same 2018 interview, he revealed that he had originally dismissed the condition as a bad hangover.
He said: ‘When my local optician told me during a check-up in 2012 that he thought I might have glaucoma, I told him: ‘I don’t think so, I went out last night and I’ve probably just had a bad hangover.’
Known as the “silent thief of sight,” the condition is usually caused by a slow buildup of fluid in the front of the eye, increasing the pressure inside the eye.
As a result, the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, is damaged.
Around 700,000 people in the UK and more than 2 million in the US live with glaucoma, which usually has no symptoms in its early stages.
It mainly affects people aged seventy or older, but people of any age can get it.
Opticians diagnose the condition during routine eye exams, which measure the pressure inside the eye.
Treatment aims to reduce this pressure through prescription eye drops, oral medications, laser retreatment, surgery, or a combination of these options.
Myers had also previously spoken out about other health issues, including discovering in 2012 that he had glaucoma, an eye condition that can lead to blindness. In the same 2018 interview, she revealed that she had originally dismissed the condition as a bad hangover. Pictured is her, Myers on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 with her partner Karen Hauer
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (C) and furry cyclists Dave Myers (L) and Si King (R) attend the British Food Fortnight Secondary Schools Competition at Clarence House, January 27, 2011.
prediabetic
Writing in the Daily Mail in 2020, Myers revealed that a routine check-up from his GP in 2009 found his blood sugar levels were “too high” and he was told he was pre-diabetic.
He was prescribed metformin tablets and medication to control his blood pressure and advised to lose some weight.
In 2012, she met 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: “One day, off camera, he quietly took me aside and told me that if I lost weight I could reverse my prediabetic state, get off the medications, and effectively protect myself against full-blown diabetes.”
‘Just two months into the experiment, Roy advised me to stop taking my diabetes pills and stop taking my blood pressure pills because I had clearly lost enough weight for my organs to start functioning 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 just in the normal category.
“I have worked hard to maintain that weight loss and have had my blood sugar levels measured 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 that he was receiving chemotherapy treatment in May 2022.
Following his diagnosis, Myers took a short break from work before filming his latest series Hairy Bikers, in which he travels west across Britain, from Scotland to Devon.
During her Christmas special, which aired in December, she revealed that chemotherapy was “debilitating.”
“The first round of chemotherapy was very, very destructive,” he said, recalling how an oncologist told him he would be “pushed to the limit.”
“You don’t realize the impact it can have, the debilitating effects come on quite quickly.”
She added: ‘By the second round of chemotherapy, my hair fell out. It’s quite radical really, it’s not a gradual shedding, the hair, the eyebrows, the eyelashes, the beard, everything just disappears.’
Following his 37th round of chemotherapy, viewers also saw the emotional moment Dave got back on his bike for the first time.
He had previously said that he was sometimes too sick to walk and was unable to ride a motorcycle after his diagnosis. He and King cried 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’ she also shared that she was diagnosed with anorexia after losing a lot of weight during her cancer treatment.