Hairy Biker Dave Myers was fitter than ever when a routine eye test revealed early signs of glaucoma. On the eve of National Eye Health Week, he talks to Gabrielle Fagan

HAVING already been on a bit of a journey with his health – shedding weight and overhauling his lifestyle – for Hairy Biker Dave Myers, finding out he had a sight-threatening eye condition was a shock.

The 61-year-old, who met his TV cooking partner and Hairy Biker other half Si King back in 1995, is one of the 700,000 people in the UK living with glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness worldwide.

Glaucoma often doesn't cause any symptoms and develops slowly, so is most often picked up by routine eye checks. It's usually caused by pressure from the fluid in the front of the eye becoming too high and damaging the optic nerve. While eye pressure can be managed with treatment (usually with drops although some people may need surgery), any damage to the optic nerve is irreversible.

"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, I've probably just got a bad hangover.' She insisted I go to my GP, and I was referred to hospital where a consultant told me I had the first signs of early-onset glaucoma," he says.

"Si and I had just lost around three stone each in a bid to get fit. I'd gone from being pre-diabetic with high blood pressure, to being off all medication and feeling great, so it was a shock to discover my sight was at risk. I was 54 and thought only old people suffered from this condition. Interestingly, diabetes and high blood pressure can make you more prone to glaucoma."

If it hadn't been picked up, the TV chef could have gone blind in around ten-15 years time. "It would have been catastrophic," he says. "My career is my passion and it's so hard to be able to imagine doing all the things I love to do if I couldn't see, whether riding my bike, reading an autocue or preparing ingredients.

"I didn't have any symptoms, so this condition is rightly known as the 'silent thief' of eyesight, as it progresses gradually and by the time you're aware of it, you may have intense eye pain, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision. Luckily, I've worn glasses since I was eight and have always gone for regular check-ups. Although people go to the dentist, many never think about their eyes, yet that simple check could save you from potential blindness."

Myers uses eye drops every night, and the condition is monitored with a hospital check-up annually and a full examination by an optician every other year. The treatment has helped to keep it at bay, and it hasn't progressed since the first diagnosis.

At 61, Myers says he never thinks about age, although Si, who is ten years younger, does tease him. "He calls me a pensioner and 'Saga man'. I've got creaky knees but apart from that, I don't feel old. We're going on a charity motorbike ride across British Colombia, so neither of us are slowing down yet."

A new book of Hairy Bikers classic recipes given a new twist will be out soon, and the pair are doing a new BBC series, probably in America, next year, so he is determined to stay healthy. As well as eye problems, Myers has suffered other health problems. "I foolishly tried to ignore a bout of pneumonia last December while performing in panto. I brushed it off as bronchitis, until Si dragged me to the doctor in January. I ended up quite ill for months. But nothing compares to being diagnosed with a cyst on my brain.

"It was 1998 and the worst year of my life, because I'd lost my fiancee to cancer earlier in the year and then at the end of the year, I suffered loads of migraines and memory loss. Doctors scanned me and told me I had a shadow on my brain. After what had happened to my fiance, I was convinced I was going to die too. In the end, it wasn't a tumour but a benign arachnoid cyst and emergency surgery successfully drained it.

"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."

Myers has also been less than svelte in the past. "I was a Northern carbohydrate monster who was morbidly obese six years ago, and weighed over 18 stone. Si and I were warned we were heading for an early grave, so our weight loss definitely saved our lives."

  • Dave Myers is working with Specsavers and the RNIB this National Eye Health Week (September 24-30) to help raise awareness of the importance of regular eye tests.