Daley talks of father’s death

Olympic diver Tom Daley has described how he held his father’s hand when he died and said his death left him without his “biggest cheerleader”.

The sports star, who was 17 at the time, said he thought his father Robert was “invincible” until the moment of his death aged 40 from brain cancer in 2011, a year before Daley competed in the 2012 London Olympics. He told Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs how he was called back from Fort Lauderdale in Florida by his mother when she knew his father had just days to live.

He told host Lauren Laverne: “I get home and I see my dad in a hospital bed in the living room. As the days went by his condition started to deteriorate. And, you know, one of the last things he said to me was: ‘Do we have our tickets yet?’

“I thought, ‘Tickets for what?’ And he said: ‘Those London 2012 tickets, because I want to be right on the front row.’ ”