Cooking duo Hairy Bikers’ Si King and Dave Myers (right) at the BBC Good Food Show

British TV chef and presenter Dave Myers, best known as one half of the Hairy Bikers, has teamed up with Specsavers to support the call for a national eye health strategy in England after being diagnosed with early-stage glaucoma.

Myers’ glaucoma was detected during a routine appointment at a local optometrists. “If the early stages of my glaucoma hadn’t been detected during an eye test, it would have progressed and I could have gone blind. This would have been the end of the Hairy Bikers and massively impacted my quality of life. Not being able to see my children’s faces again would have been heartbreaking,” he told the Express newspaper.

Myers, Specsavers and Marsha de Cordova, Labour MP for Battersea and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Vision Impairment in the UK, are calling for all UK government parties to support the creation and implementation of a national eye health strategy in the next parliament. “A national eye health strategy would improve the quality of life of people with sight loss, eliminate the postcode lottery, address health inequalities and link up patient pathways for overall improved health outcomes,” said de Cordova.