Hairy Bikers star and BBC personality Dave Myers said he “couldn’t cope” when faced with caring for either his mother of his father.

Dave, 64, became a carer at just eight years old when his mum was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and placed in a wheelchair.

When Dave was 17, his father suffered a debilitating stroke, leaving the cook with an agonising choice over who to care for.

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The TV presenter forms one half of the Hairy Bikers along with Si King. The pair travel around the world on their motorbikes cooking up recipes, often for the BBC.

However, Dave’s childhood was a difficult one, as he spent his youth caring for his mother after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

MS is a lifelong condition and it left Dave’s mother, Margaret, in a wheelchair.

Dave became the3 household’s cleaner and chef as well as being a carer and the intensity caused him to lose his hair.

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Speaking on The Hairy Bikers’ latest BBC programme, The Hairy Bikers Go North, he said: “Yes, life changed.

“Becoming a carer didn’t ruin my life – I still had lots of mates – but it certainly tied my childhood down.

“I couldn’t go to bed until Mum went to bed.

“Dad would take Mum’s legs and I’d take her arms and we’d carry her up the stairs each night.”

At the age of 72, Dave’s father suffered a stroke. At the time, Dave was just 17.

Speaking to Entertainment Daily, he said: “I put Dad in his bed and put Mum in my bedroom, with a commode.

“I had no idea what I was going to do.

“Fortunately, when the district nurse came round, she realised I couldn’t cope on my own.

“She sent another doctor, who asked, ‘Which parent do you think you can cope better with?”

Dave made the decision to remain with his father, who had the chance of recovering.

Margaret was later admitted to hospital, where she died four years later. His father, Jim, died of a second stroke when Dave was just 20.

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