Dave Clark interview: Darts presenter lifts lid on five years of battling Parkinson's - and refusing to throw in the towel

Clark will not let uninvited guests like Parkinson's get in the way of business as usual 

Sky Sports Battle: Dave Clark hasn't stopped presenting on Sky Sports

He trots out the date and time, to the nearest minute, as if it was a train timetable.
Precisely 10.47am on 25 January 2011, a Tuesday morning, the moment Dave Clark was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease – the creeping, insidious illness that will affect one in 500 of us – could have turned him into a recluse.

The clues had been there, and he had watched the same horrid condition kill his father, Alan.
But instead of letting it break his spirit and submerge him like the tide, Clark resolved that, although his life would never be the same, the fight was only just beginning.

On Thursday night, as a new season of Betway Premier League darts opens in front of a sell-out 12,000 crowd in Leeds, with a re-run of Gary Anderson's world championship final against Adrian Lewis topping the bill, Clark will anchor Sky Sports' live coverage as usual.

For the next 15 weeks, as the tungsten circus pitches its big top all over Britain and - for the first time - in Rotterdam, Clark will front the biggest Thursday night party since Tony Blair kicked out the Tories.
He will not let uninvited guests like Parkinson's get in the way of business as usual.

YouTube/Speedy Services On the job: Clark speaking with Wayne Mardle

And in September, he will walk 200 miles from coast to coast to raise finds for Parkinson's UK, the charity adopted by the Professional Darts Corporation for 2016, as a nod to Clark's inspiring resistance of a formidable adversary.

The trek will finish at Robin Hood's Bay, near Whitby, where Clark used to spend his summer holidays as a kid.

Now 49, there are signs of the illness tightening its grip: the cramps at night, the struggle to hold a pen, the shakes.

But as he faces the cameras again, Clark is determined to prove that Parkinson's may be a life sentence – but it's not the end of the world.

“Last month was my fifth anniversary - the specialist prefaced the news by asking me if I had a big mortgage, and immediately I knew it was serious.

“My handwriting had been getting smaller, which is a telling symptom, and I was getting an aching, numb sensation in my right hand.

“I thought I had damaged a nerve throwing myself around in goal playing five-a-side, but it turned out to be something a bit more fundamental.

“Five years down the line, on a bad day I can't even write my own name. It has affected my right arm more, so I taught myself to write left-handed.

Professional Darts Corporation Role reversal: Clark being interviewed by PDC

“I also walk with a limp now, which is a bit annoying, but on good days – when my medication has kicked in – I still get around well enough.

“My two boys, who are 13 and 10, are aware that dad is a 'Parky' who sometimes needs a couple of attempts to get out of his armchair.

“But they love watching Back To The Future - Michael J. Fox is still going strong 25 years after he was diagnosed – and in boxing Freddie Roach, an absolute hero of mine, is still training world champions.

“The message I want to get out there is that diagnosis is not the end: It's just the beginning of the fight.

“Employers who look for the exit door when an employee is diagnosed with Parkinson's are out of order. Mine was enlightened enough to offer me a new contract.

“And in a strange way, Parkinson's has made me seize the day, ticking off things on my bucket list.

“I've just been to New York, where I went to Madison Square Garden and saw Bruce Springsteen in concert: I came home with such a spring in my step that my neurosurgeon has written me a prescription to see the 'Boss' at least three times a year in concert.

YouTube/Speedy Services Ongoing: Clark was diagnosed with Parkinson's five years ago

“I know the bottom line is that the illness will ultimately have a devastating effect on me and those around me. In years to come, I might not be able to walk, talk or even smile.

“But I'm not going to hide away – the alternative is to give up the ghost, pack it in, turn the lights off and lie in the corner of a darkened room. No way am I throwing in the towel to some lousy illness.

“Billy Connolly has just done 15 nights of stand-up comedy at the Hammersmith Apollo, and they will have to carry me out on my shield as well.

“I'll be on parade in Leeds, my home city, in front of 12,000 fans in the arena and millions watching on TV around the world, gripping the armrest of my chair so my right arm doesn't shake.

“I can cover it up pretty well most of the time, especially with medication, and I was proud to present the world championships for 15 nights at Ally Pally without a hitch.”
Support from the darts fraternity – a close-knit community by nature - has been immense.

Godfather of the oche Phil 'The Power' Taylor was among the first to send Clark a message of support as soon as he went public with his condition, while Lewis has just put his £1,000 prize money from an exhibition night in the kitty for his charity walk.

“Alan Shearer has just been in touch to say his mate will give me free membership of his gym in London to help me get fit to walk 200 miles,” he said. “That was a classy touch.”