David Myers, one part of TV duo The Hairy Bikers, has said that getting the “all-clear” from cancer will make him feel like he’s “made it”.
The celebrity chef revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer in May and began undergoing chemotherapy.
In an update about his health, Myers described the treatment – of which he has done 14 sessions and has six more to do – as “a huge inconvenience”.
He told The Guardian: “I’ll feel like I’ve made it when I get the all-clear from this bloody cancer. That’s going to be completely life-changing, life-affirming. And life never will be the same again.”
In May, the TV chef told his co-host and cooking partner Si King that he would take a step back from filming and public events to take on chemotherapy.
Speaking on their podcast, The Hairy Bikers: Agony Uncles… A Right Pair of Aunts, he said: “I haven’t been too well recently and basically, I’ve got to have some chemo, you know all this anyway, so this year is going to be a bit quiet for me.
“I’m not going to be filming, some of the festivals I’m not going to be able to go to, some I may be OK but this year’s a bit of a write off for us.”
In his latest update, Myers said that going through cancer and chemotherapy left him unable to recognise himself when he rewatches old episodes of The Hairy Bikers on TV.
“I think about the past with huge, great jealousy and affection,” he admitted.
“Watching some of our old episodes on telly when I’m ill, I don’t look like myself. And I look at myself there with my best mate, thinking, you know… I remember I said to [my wife] Lil, ‘That used to be me’.
“’No,’ she said. ‘That is you’,” he recalled.
Elsewhere in the interview, King was asked if he considered shaving his head in support of his friend, who has lost his famous beard due to the chemotherapy.
“Er, no,” King answered. “I mean, if he’d asked us, I probably would have,”
Myers said his wife, Liliana Orzac, did offer to shave her head but he told her not to.
“I said, ‘Don’t do that because then, you do realise, we can’t go out together?’ Not being sexist but I think [being bald] is easier for a bloke.”
He also revealed that “the numbers are going the right way” in terms of his treatment, which has encouraged him to “carry on”.
In September, Myers lamented the loss of his beard and said: “I just miss having my beard – the feeling of it, because your skin’s different and all peachy. No, I want my beard back. I’m alright with my hair – I think the bald head and beard’s the way to go for a biker.”
