Dave Myers, one half of the Hairy Bikers duo, has spoken candidly about going through chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with cancer last May.
The TV chef, 65, said the gruelling treatment affected his ability to walk, so he had to re-learn how to do so after undergoing multiple rounds of it.
Speaking on the How To Be 60 podcast, he told host Kaye Adams: “By God, the chemotherapy doesn’t half age you quickly. Because your balance goes, so for someone with a motorbike that’s a disaster, and my walking has been affected quite a lot, really.”
Myers explained that he does not have any “symptoms of the cancer”, but the chemotherapy affected “neuropathy” in his feet, making it “hard to stand”.
“So I’ve had to learn to walk again properly,” he said. “It’s a funny thing, chemotherapy, it’s one of life’s great levellers. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the telly or on the dole, if you get that then you’re in the s***.”
He opened up about experiencing depression due to the treatment, adding: “It’s a type of chemical depression and that’s really hard, because everyone is telling you to be positive, but when the chemistry in your body is not telling you that story, that’s harsh.
“Hopefully there will be more positive chapters beyond this.”
Despite the challenges posed by the treatment and his diagnosis, Myers remains hopeful and said he will go back to filming The Hairy Bikers this spring.
“We’re going to film around the chemo. That’s just the way it is, really,” he said. “One doesn’t have an option at the minute. All I can say is it’s not spreading and I’m holding my own OK. So I’m very grateful for that.”
He said that some days he “feels fine”, but other times he “just needs to go to bed” and likened it to sleeping off “a bad hangover”.
Myers first revealed his diagnosis on an episode of his podcast with cooking partner Si King. Speaking on The Hairy Bikers: Agony Uncles… A Right Pair of Aunts, he said he decided to discuss his diagnosis because he didn’t want to “hide under a rock”.
“I may be a baldy biker for a while, so it’s just warning, I don’t want to make a fuss about it, I look alright bald actually,” he said at the time.
In December, he made his first TV appearance since his diagnosis on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen.
Myers said he felt “over the moon” to be “still breathing” and revealed that “there were some times that I didn’t think I’d be here for Christmas”.
He thanked his doctors and nurses in Birmingham, as well as King for “looking after me [and] filling my freezer with dumplings”.
