My battle to save Bristow, by taxi driver
“I was devastated to learn of Eric’s death at such an early age. He’s been taken far too young. He was a legend and was a hero to me when I was growing up.
“Eric was a straight talker, and what you saw is what you got. I loved him to death.”
Fordham confessed his own health “will never be brilliant’ after a lifetime of excess, but said today’s top darts players were far more lifestyle conscious.
“It’s totally different. They watch what they eat and drink because they will never get to the heights if they don’t treat themselves like sportsmen,” he said.
And Fordham has vowed to lose weight again so his grandchildren can see him compete on the world stage.
The darts ace shed 15 stone after he collapsed at the 2007 BDO World Championships, but the pounds have piled back on.
“My aim is get down to 19 stone this year. I’ve joined a gym. I really need to build up my stamina so I don’t get knackered when I’m on the oche,” he said.
Fordham, who grew up in Charlton, south-east London, was once a keen athlete, weighing 13st in his mid-20s. But he then took up darts and in 1995 became a pub landlord.
The once-notorious drinker would down 25 bottles of Holsten Pils a day, plus spirits and wine, before kicking the habit. “I can’t afford to do that. I want to see my grandkids grow up,” he said.
Last night darts star Phil “The Power” Taylor, 57, described his mentor Bristow as a “brother” and said: “He lived life on his own terms and good on him.
“I would always tell him to cut down on the fags and booze but he would tell me to p*** off. You couldn’t tell him anything.”
Untimely darts world deaths include ex- world champion Jocky Wilson who died in 2012 aged 62, after battling lung disease and Welsh star Leighton Rees, 63, who would warm up with five pints of lager and a couple of brandies, from heart failure in 2003.
Months before his death Rees said: “Everyone started playing in a pub, drinking and smoking. I wish now it had been different.”
Alan Evans, known as Evans the Arrow, who loved to play over a pint, died aged just 49, in 1999. A TAXI driver yesterday told of his desperate fight to save Eric Bristow’s life after he collapsed.
Ricky Nicol, 32, was picking up a fare from the Pullman Hotel in Liverpool when he saw a man collapsed near the car park.
The first aid-trained father-of-three said: “There was a man on the floor, not breathing and clearly in a bad way.
“His friend was panicking and I knew someone needed to take control of the situation so I stepped in. I told his friend to call the ambulance as I started CPR.”
Ricky and an off-duty nurse battled to save Bristow before paramedics arrived.
Ricky, from Liverpool, said: “I didn’t even realise it was Eric Bristow until his friend told me.
“I’d do the same for anyone though – I’d like to think someone would have done the same for my dad.”