Latest news with #DaveMyers
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Dave Myers widow Lili 'cannot watch' final Hairy Bikers series
Dave Myers' widow said she still cannot bring herself to watch the final Hairy Bikers series, following his death from cancer last who was one half of the Hairy Bikers TV cookery show duo along with Si King, died aged 66 shortly after the airing of their final series during which they explored the UK's west coast. Ahead of a re-run, Lili Myers said filming during his treatment had helped him regain his "sense of self" amid the many hospital appointments and physical changes like hair loss."What a superhuman effort he made to finish the series. But also, I'll never forget the look on his face once filming was done. He knew it would be his last," Mrs Myers said. When she was told the series was scheduled to run again, Mrs Myers said her "stomach filled with butterflies".The pair had been together for nearly 20 years. She remembered long talks about whether he should film the series, because he was concerned about maximising their time with each other."He said, 'look, there's this project, and if you don't want me to do it, I won't do it,'" Mrs Myers said. "'I know that this eats up from our time, and I really wouldn't like to deprive you of anything.'"He always considered me first." 'Feel himself again' Mrs Myers said she encouraged her husband to do it "because it meant so much to him"."Being under treatment, he had a sense of losing his identity, his hair loss," she said."Can you imagine? He was known for his hair and all of a sudden, this treatment took his hair away."Myers' sense of taste changed which meant he could not "feel the same pleasure" eating food as he had done wife said: "Filming this series for him, I felt that it would make him feel himself again."Make him feel that he had not lost anything, that he was valuable, that he was whole and everything was normal again." King, Dave and Mrs Myers watched the first episode together when in aired in early February 2024. "That was the first, the only episode that I watched," Mrs Myers said."I couldn't watch the rest of it because afterwards he became ill and it was very difficult to watch."Myers died later that month, to an outpouring of his passing, Myers' friends and family have organised Dave Day and Dave Day 2, during which thousands of bikers travel from London to Myers's home town of Barrow, raising money for year's event has already raised thousands of pounds for NSPCC Childline and CancerCare North Lancashire and south Cumbria. The Hairy Bikers Go West will re-run on BBC Two on 15 July. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Times
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Reliving Britain's strength in adversity — and other news in pictures
Ukrainians jump over a bonfire during celebrations for the traditional pagan holiday of Ivana Kupala in Kyiv, usually celebrated on the shortest night of the year SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA Thousands of bikers arrive at Barrow-in-Furness for Dave Day 2, to celebrate the life of the Hairy Bikers presenter Dave Myers. He died from cancer at the age of 66 last year GREENBURN/ALAMY A trio of one-month-old hoglets are due to be released after they were accidentally picked up by an excavator before being taken to a rescue charity, Help4hedgehogs, near Hailsham in East Sussex JON SANTA CRUZ The Turkish mosaic artist Gulcin Sokucu, who reflects her fascination with sunflowers in her work, stands in a field of them in Gaziantep, southern Turkey ADSIZ GUNEBAKAN/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES JOHN LAMPARSKI/GETTY IMAGES SHIRLAINE FORREST/GETTY IMAGES Robert Springett, the Bishop of Tewkesbury, immerses Laura Raymond in cold water for her baptism in a paddling pool during the heatwave at St James Church in Quedgeley, Gloucestershire PAUL NICHOLLS PHOTOGRAPHY The 8th French Lightsaber Open takes place at the Japy gymnasium in Paris ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Ed Kluz's immersive exhibition 'Between Chaos and Light' will be in place until December 21 inside Fountains Hall at the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal world heritage site in North Yorkshire, running from the summer solstice to the winter equivalent TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP The British rider Chris Froome, of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, relaxes in a cable car after competing in the eighth and last stage of the Tour de Suisse, a 10.1km individual time trial from Beckenried to Stockhütte, Switzerland URS FLUEELER/EPA The blessing of the River Avon took place at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, by the Rev Canon Nick Davies, vicar of Tewkesbury Abbey. The blessing of the river is both spiritual and symbolic, calling on people of all faiths and none to unite in environmental stewardship JACK BOSKETT MEDIA LIMITED A farmer watches over a flock of sheep at Gèdre, southwest France. Attacks by bears force them to seek safer pastures higher up in the Pyrenees VALENTINE CHAPUIS/AFP Revellers dance in the street during Fête De La Musique 2025 as bands and DJs play across the French capital. Launched in 1982 by the French culture ministry with the aim of making all genres of music accessible to everyone, the festival is now celebrated on the summer solstice in 85 countries KIRAN RIDLEY/GETTY IMAGES Exercises with Samoyed puppies on International Yoga Day in Bangkok, Thailand CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS People cool off at Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, Chicago, as temperatures climb to more than 35C. Excessive heat is expected in the area for the next few days KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP Tourists enjoy a boat ride at Marmaris in southern Turkey SABRI KESEN/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES Couples kiss during 'The Wedding: New York's Biggest Day', an annual event that allows people to celebrate their love either by getting married for the first time, renewing their vows or simply expressing their love for the city at Lincoln Center in Manhattan HEATHER KHALIFA/REUTERS The annual Shandur polo festival takes place at Shandur Pass at an estimated altitude of about 3,700m (12,140ft) in Chitral, northern Pakistan KHURAM PARVEZ/REUTERS Sylvain André of France competes in the men's elite first round during the 2025 UCI BMX racing world cup at the Papendal sports centre in Arnhem, Netherlands RENE NIJHUIS/MB MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES Dawn at Esthwaite Water, a 280-acre natural lake in the Lake District
BreakingNews.ie
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Dave Myers' widow says memorial motorcycle ride has become ‘more than a tribute'
Dave Myers' widow, Liliana Myers, has said a memorial motorcycle ride in his honour has become 'more than just a tribute' as it helps people to work through their grief and make friends. Motorcyclists returned to the TV chef's hometown of Barrow-in-Furness on Saturday, a year on from the first Dave Day, in memory of the 66-year-old who died last year following a battle with cancer. Advertisement Myers was part of the motorcycle-riding cooking duo the Hairy Bikers with co-presenter Si King, who also attended the event at the weekend. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Hairy Bikers (@hairybikers) 'It's magical and amazing. Last year we had the bike ride and then a concert, but this year there's been a lot more. It's been a full weekend of events,' Myers told BBC Breakfast. 'It just started with a bike ride. Started at Ace Cafe in London. We were in the sun. It was scorching hot at some points, water just dripping off all of us.' She added: 'The last stop that we planned, we couldn't do it because it was packed with bikes. Advertisement 'So there were about 7,000 bikes in Burton-in-Kendal and we had to go past it. We couldn't stop. 'We got into Barrow earlier than we planned anyway, because of missing one stop, and we had about 40,000 bikes again on the roads this year. 'So many messages that I received from drivers on the other side of the motorways saying how amazing that was and how tearful they were to see the convoy. So (it was) really magical, beautiful. 'Then when we arrived there, we had a concert waiting for us. And on Saturday, a bike exhibition, bike stand, the Dave museum… It's so emotional.' Advertisement She added: 'I'm on a high, very tired because I think I had a couple of hours sleep the whole weekend. But it was so uplifting and so wonderful to see all those people from all over the country coming to pay a tribute. Motorcyclists at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, as they ride from London to Barrow ahead of Dave Day in 2024 (Jacob King/PA) 'And it became a little bit more than just a tribute. It was an occasion for people to manifest. 'Whether they were going through grief, through loss, whether they just needed a friendship, or a friend to talk to. 'I had a book signing, and I spoke with about 300 people that were there, and every one of them had a story about their health or about learning to cook watching Dave and Si on the TV because they've been part of people's living rooms for more than 20 years. And it's just amazing to see the legacy that they have.' Advertisement Dave Day 2025 raised money for NSPCC Childline and CancerCare North Lancashire and South Cumbria, an independent charity providing therapy and support to people affected by cancer. Last year the memorial ride raised £127,460.60, according to the Dave Day website. King and Myers were friends for more than three decades and fronted a series of cooking and travel programmes on the BBC from 2004. Myers' death came while the pair's last series, The Hairy Bikers Go West, was being aired – seeing them travel along the west of the UK from Scotland down to Devon. Advertisement Outside of their travelogue series, Myers competed on Strictly Come Dancing and the duo published more than 25 cookery books.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The troubled early life of Hairy Bikers' Dave Myers: Star's widow Lili reveals how star battled childhood sickness, bullying and messy first marriage before his tragic death
He was beloved by millions of Hairy Bikers fans who expressed an outpouring of love after his death from cancer in 2024 aged 66. Now Dave Myers ' widow Lili has revealed he faced adversity in his early life as she detailed his childhood and early adulthood in her new memoir Dave & Me. Lili, who married Dave in 2011, recounted the late star's early years in the emotional book, including his battle with alopecia and his mother's health struggles with multiple sclerosis. Dave's mother Margaret was diagnosied with MS when he was just eight years old, forcing him and his father Jim to become her full-time carers. Lili wrote: 'Within a year of Margaret's diagnosis, she was in a wheelchair and, in time, became physically and mentally ravaged by illness and medication. 'Dave and his dad were her full-time carers which was an immense responsibility for a boy not yet ten. 'Social services eventually moved them to a ground-floor flat on a new council estate in Barrow and the family lived hand-to-mouth, surviving on Jim's pension money. There were many other challenges to contend with, but Dave found escape in music and painting, two more lifelong loves alongside bikes and food.' Dave had lost both his parents by the time he was 24, with Jim dying of a stroke and Margaret passing away in a care home four years later. The presenter also had to contend with bullying in school which occured after he was diagnosed with alopecia and lost his hair. 'Not many people know that Dave Myers, the Hairy Biker, was bald from childhood until his forties,' Margaret wrote. 'At a very young age he began to suffer with alopecia which made things extremely difficult for him, especially in school where he was already singled out for being a 'poor kid' thanks to his free meal tokens. He was a target for the bullies and those days were miserable for Dave, sapping his confidence and spirit.' Dave even believed his alopecia may have developed as a side effect of the stress of caring for his mother. It wasn't until Dave was in his forties that his hair started to grow back which came after a worrying health scare. Lili told how Dave was working on a film set as a makeup artist in Luxembourg in 1998 when he collapsed. Rushed to a German hospital, a scan revealed an arachnoid cyst on the left side of his brain which was thought to have been there since childhood because his brain had grown around it. 'Against advice from doctors and friends, he travelled in his van (driven by a colleague), back to his home in Aberdeenshire where he was admitted to the Royal Infirmary for an operation to install a shunt to relieve the pressure, plus drains to remove the fluid from the cyst itself,' Lili wrote. 'Thankfully, the surgery was a success and Dave was discharged just five days later on Christmas Eve, but his recovery took some unexpected turns. 'Not long after his op, Dave's hair started to grow in dark and healthy curls. I'm not medically trained and so this is just a hunch, but perhaps that cyst sitting undetected had been pressing on a certain part of the brain ... and maybe a combination of that and the stress of caring for his mum had triggered the alopecia in the first place? We'll never know for sure, but it makes sense to me. 'I could still feel the shunt on the left side of Dave's head when I met him seven years later, a testimony to a past I was not part of. Another life. 'One I only knew from pictures and Dave and his friends' endless stories. Oh, Dave was so proud of his hair once he had it back! He would wash it every day.' Prior to his fame with Simon King as part of the Hairy Bikers, Dave worked as a makeup artist for 23 years. He worked on several film sets and did the makeup of stars including Christoper Lambert, Sir Roger Moore, Dennis Hopper, Helen Mirren, Stephanie Beacham, Timothy West, Michael Parkin-son, Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Seymour. In 1987, Dave was working as a freelancer when he met his first wife Kate. They relocated to the northeast of Scotland, buying an apartment above a small shop in Huntly, Aber-deenshire and setting up an antiques business together. 'I'm not sure how happy those years were, but they must have loved each other and Dave spoke fondly about the fun he had running the shop, with him taking ad hoc makeup artistry work when he could throughout the year,' Lili wrote. But all was not well as Lili told how Dave returned home one weekend from a job in Darlington and found the shop, flat and his bank account emptied and Kate gone. 'Twisting the knife further was the discovery that she'd enlisted the help of Dave's unwitting best friend, Dr Dave Easton, to load the van under the guise of going to an antiques fair,' she wrote. 'Poor Dr Dave had no idea he was aiding and abetting Kate to clean Dave out and he felt terrible, although of course it wasn't his fault. It would be a source of humour between the two Daves throughout all the years that followed. 'Dave never saw Kate again after that and they only spoke once more to agree to an uncontested divorce. From what he told me, she felt unsettled living where they were, but the reality for Dave was now starting his life again from scratch.' Elsewhere in the book, Lili discussed Dave's cancer treatment, which she described as 'debilitating and ugly'. His treatment was so aggressive that he developed sores in his mouth and had to wear gloves due to nerve damage in his hands. 'It got to the point where he was too ill to speak; after each bout, one of the substances he was being given brought on a temporary speech impediment so he could not properly articulate words,' Lili wrote. 'He had sores in his mouth which meant he was unable to eat or drink and was suffering with such severe nerve damage in his hands that he had to wear gloves. 'He had it in his legs too, which affected his balance and ability to walk. I remember Si picked us up from the hospital one day and he was shocked at the state of Dave, who was a shadow of his former self.' Lili also described how difficult it was for Dave to lose his hair again whilst going through chemo. 'Losing his hair as a result of the chemo was incredibly painful for Dave given his history of alopecia and the regrowth following the surgery in 1998 for the arachnoid cyst. 'The decision to shave it all off was our way of taking control, which was psychologically beneficial, although it took him a while to get used to being bald again. 'He felt reduced to being only a cancer patient, stripped of his image, identity and personality, and with a face he no longer recognised.' She added: 'He told me how difficult he found it to love himself when he looked in the mirror because the physical change was so drastic. He thought he was hideous with no hair, no eyelashes and heavily stained teeth from chemo. 'He'd lost a lot of muscle mass which meant his skin sagged, the neuropathy in his hands and feet made them unbearably achy, and some fingernails and toenails had fallen off.' Lili first met the TV personality in 2005, while he was working on location in her native Romania. They became pen pals before establishing a romance, with Dave eventually becoming stepfather to her two children from a former relationship.
Scottish Sun
21-06-2025
- Automotive
- Scottish Sun
M6 traffic: UK's longest motorway grinds to a halt as thousands of bikers descend for Hairy Biker ‘Dave Day'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE UK's longest motorway will grind to a halt today as a horde of bikers pay poignant tribute to the life of Hairy Biker Dave Myers. Thousands of riders are expected to grab their helmets and head north to Cumbria to commemorate this year's 'Dave Day' in honour of the late TV personality. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Hundreds of bikers are gathering to take part in a memorial bike ride for Dave Myers of the Hairy Bikers 4 It is the second time thousands of bikers have assembled to pay poignant tribute to the star It marks the second consecutive year the memorial bike ride has taken place. In 2024, an estimated 46,000 bikers arrived to celebrate Dave's life following his tragic death on February 28 that year. The bikers are expected to arrive in the county this afternoon where two days of events will begin in memory of the beloved chef. National Highways is advising motorists to allow more time for their journeys and to plan ahead this weekend. The motorcycle procession starts at the iconic Ace Cafe in London, with bikers joining at other rendezvous points including the Oxford Welcome Break Services at junction 8A on the M40, the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham and northbound M6 Moto Services at Knutsford between junctions 11 and 12. National Highways Northwest Operations Manager Dee Murray said: 'We are advising motorists to allow more time for their journeys with thousands more bikers than usual travelling across the motorway network this weekend. 'The M6 will be particularly busy, especially at junction 36 with the procession making its way along the A590 to Barrow, but also earlier at Knutsford Services, where motorcyclists travelling from the south will gather before completing their journeys north. 'We urge road users to take extra care with motorcyclists travelling in convoys. Safety advice can be found on our website under our TRIP and BikerTek campaigns.' TRAGIC DEATH Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers died on February 28, 2024 aged 66. The beloved TV chef had battled cancer since 2022, bravely updating fans about his illness. Hairy Bikers star Si King makes heartbreaking confession 10 months after Dave Myers's death - as he lands new ITV job Dave found fame alongside Si King, his friend of 30 years, as part of the motorcycle-riding cooking duo. His co-star announced the tragic news in a statement, prompting a flurry of emotional tributes from celebrity friends and fans alike. Posting on Twitter, Si said: "Hi everyone, I'm afraid I bear some sad news. "Most of you will know Dave has been fighting cancer for the past couple of years. "Last night, on 28th February 2024, with Lili, Dave's wife, his family, close friend David and myself by his side, he passed away peacefully at home. "All who knew Dave are devastated at his passing. His beloved wife brought him such happiness as did her children, Iza and Sergiu who Dave loved like his own. "Personally, I am not sure I can put into words on how I feel at the moment. My best friend is on a journey that for now, I can't follow. "I will miss him every day and the bond and friendship we shared over half a lifetime. "I wish you god's speed brother; you are and will remain a beacon in this world. See you on the other side. Love ya." 4 National Highways has advised motorists to allow more time for their journeys
