Lili Myers, widow of Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers, is auctioning over 300 of his personal belongings on what would have been his 69th birthday, September 8. The collection, ranging from £40 to £2,000, includes his biker boots, helmets, jackets, antiques, artwork, a moustache comb, and Strictly memorabilia.
A Life in Objects
Lili, 59, told the Mirror: “I thought now would be the time to do this. My house is still packed with all sorts. I’m keeping a lot of things, but now is the moment that I can start to move on.” The items tell the story of Dave’s life, from his TV career to his early days as a prosthetics make-up artist and even his school days.
“There’s probably five lives packed into all of this,” she said. “Every object tells a story about his journey and his experience. Half of these objects are related to a period I didn’t know. I only met him when he was starting his career as a TV personality. Many of the objects were in boxes, so were new to me as well. His school reports, pictures he took with different people he worked with… It’s a beautiful story for me to discover.”
From Hairy Bikers to Strictly
Dave, from Barrow-in-Furness, became a household name with The Hairy Bikers, which ran for over 30 series. Items from the show include a Christian Lacroix cream linen suit he wore while filming A Cook Abroad in Egypt. Lili recalled his story: “I was wearing this white suit and the nubians were sacrificing a goat near me.”
Before TV fame, Dave worked as a make-up artist for 23 years, with photos of him with Patrick Stewart and Sir Roger Moore, plus a letter from Moore: “Dear David, Thank you for taking such good care of my old face, I look forward to repeating the experience. Thank you, Roger Moore.”
His Strictly appearance in 2013 with Karen Hauer is remembered with dancing shoes and a champagne bottle. Lili laughed: “The man was not a dancer. He was a man of glitter and glamour, he loved his bedazzled helmets. Karen used to say to him, ‘You don’t have two left feet, you have several left feet.’”
Keeping His Memory Alive
Lili has channeled her grief into helping others, including creating Dave Day motorbike rides; the last one in June attracted over 40,000 riders. She said: “Whenever somebody loses their partner, there’s a big hollow space that’s left. It’s difficult to find who you are without them. Of course you have to find how you fill that hollow space. Losing Dave was a moment where I went into the direction to help others who are in the same position. I’m using my experience to guide other people who are going through loss or illness, or struggle to come to terms with something. I found my purpose.”
The auction, with some proceeds going to the NSPCC and Childline, takes place at Special Auction Services in Newbury on Tuesday 8 September. Lili’s son is getting married in Romania just before, and “he’s got a special seat at his table for Dave. And he’s going to wear a pendant in Dave’s memory.”
