Daley open about dad’s last days
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 his mum told him to come home from training in the US because his dad was dying. The Olympic medallist said: “All of our family and friends were around and he had gone unconscious. We were watching his chest.
“I was holding his hand as he stopped breathing.”