Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers has offered insight into his ‘brutal’ chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with cancer last year.
In a new interview, the BBC star, 60, has detailed how his gruelling treatment has led him to lose ‘so much weight’ after having zero appetite.
Speaking on Tommy Banks’ Seasoned podcast, Dave explained that he is still having chemotherapy for cancer after being diagnosed last year, and the side effects meant he could barely eat more than a can of soup.
He said: ”It’s funny, when you first start chemotherapy… it’s quite hard. I’m still having it. It really was brutal.
‘I lost so much weight and then it’s a battle to get your calories in.
Candid: Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers, 60, has offered insight into his ‘brutal’ chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with cancer last year
‘At first I thought, ‘Right, this is great, I can eat all those pies I haven’t been eating for years’, except [my] appetite was dreadful!
‘For me, a glutton, losing my appetite was awful. A can of soup was about as far as I could go.
‘Now I’ve got to the point where I’m at the weight I want to be, and I want to maintain it.’
Dave first went public with his cancer diagnosis in May 2022, with chemotherapy causing him to lose all of his hair, including his signature beard.
However, fans were delighted when the chef shared an Instagram snap from a recent night out, where his sported his trademark full beard.
He previously said that his chemotherapy even affected his ability to walk, telling Kaye Adams on her How To Be 60 podcast: ‘I’m still having chemotherapy, but what I’m finding out now is you have to live with the cancer. It’s like a diabetic who needs insulin and constant care. That’s the state I’m in now.
‘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.
‘But I’m going to go back to film this May, and we’re going to film around the chemo. That’s just the way it is really.
Slimmed down: In a new interview, the BBC star (left in 2021 and right recently) has detailed how his gruelling treatment has led him to lose ‘so much weight’ after having zero appetite
‘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.
‘Sometimes I feel fine and other times I just need to go to bed. Then I kind of sleep it off, a bit like a bad hangover.’
The television presenter went on to explain how his treatment affected him so badly physically that he had to relearn how to walk.
‘I really have no symptoms of the cancer, it’s the chemotherapy, he said. ‘It’s neuropathy in your feet, so it’s hard to stand. So I’ve had to learn to walk again properly’
‘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**t. And sometimes the chemo does make you depressed.
‘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.’
And as part of looking to the future in a positive way has involved Dave buying a new motorbike to ride when he’s in a fit state.
He continued: ‘I’ve bought a new motorbike. In physio, they sit me on a Pilates ball and rock me from side to side, pretending I’m on the motorbike.
‘I have a rubber band under one foot and a rubber band under the other and I’m changing and braking and making motorbike noises.
‘They [the physios] are determined to get me back on the bike.’
He added: ‘There are so many more adventures I want to have. I don’t have to retire as long as people watch the programmes and buy the books I can crack on until I’m 110, as long as I can keep breathing.’
Meanwhile, Dave recalled the moment he was sent some grooming tools while undergoing his chemotherapy, but wasn’t able to use them because he had ‘two billiard balls down there’.
He said: ‘I mentioned once on my podcast about pubic hair and decoration, and I got this thing through on Facebook for manscaping. It was a set of clippers for men to shave their nuts and bits, to keep everything nice and tidy.
Back to normal: The star is having physio in a desperate attempt to get back on his bike, after admitting his chemotherapy affected his ability to walk
‘A few weeks later, this very expensive apparatus arrived in the post, and there was me deep in the heart of chemotherapy. It was the last thing in the world I needed!
‘It was like two billiard balls down there, I didn’t need anything like that. I looked like an embryo. It was not a good look.
‘But it’s brilliant my hair has come back now, it’s better than it was before the chemo, which I’m quite pleased about.’
Dave has suffered with illness in the past after being diagnosed with a cyst on his brain in 1998, and later glaucoma, which is an eye condition that can lead to blindness.
The same year he was diagnosed with having a cyst on his brain, Dave sadly lost his fiancée to cancer, previously describing 1998 as the worst year of his life.
