Dan Walker will never forget pal Gary Speed's last words to him as tragic death left him 'poleaxed'

Presenter has told how he thinks about his friend everyday - but says the footballer’s sons are now in a “really good place.” The broadcaster says he is “forever changed” by the events 14 years ago .

The two men were colleagues on , and Dan was one of the last people to speak to him. Speed left behind his wife Louise, and two sons Ed and Tommy, who were just 14 and 13 at the time. But speaking to the , Dan says how he has been left heartened by how well the boys are now doing.

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“Thankfully his are in a decent place. I can’t imagine what it’s like for two teenage boys to go through losing a dad like that,” he says. “They’re trying to move on with their lives.”

Dan featured the boys in his book Remarkable People, which saw a chapter about Speed, and he says Ed, who was in America, sent him “the nicest email I think I’ve ever received” afterwards.

“It said ‘I hope that one day if I ever need to explain to my wife, partner, about who I am, and why I am, they need to read that chapter,'” Dan says. “I’m glad that they were happy with how I represented them and their dad. That’s the important thing to me.”

Dan vividly recalls being on the Focus sofa alongside Speed the day before his death. “We left on great terms, and Gary’s last words were: ‘I’ll ring you Monday and we’ll organize a game of .’”

He was left poleaxed when the news filtered through of his friend’s passing, and he has gone over everything in “minute detail”.

“I’ve thought about that day a gazillion times about, you know, should I have seen something? Could I have had a conversation with him?,” he says. Dan says that his friend’s death has shaped his outlook on life, including his passion to improve childrens’ mental health.

Along with and comedian, they’ve launched children’s mental health campaign Bright Young Dreams. “The darker times including Gary have informed a lot of conversations that I’ve been having around the charity,” he says. “You can’t be unchanged by that. I think maybe, hopefully,it’s tuned me to be a better listener.”

Despite being in the glare of the public eye, Dan says he has not suffered with poor mental health. But he says some of his TV colleagues have not fared as well, particularly when it comes to coping with online vitriol.

“I see how it affects some….it’s really, really brutal,” he says. “And I know people have left the job because they don’t like it.” Dan says that while he loved his time on , others have struggled with being at the centre of the Saturday night machine.

“It’s an amazing program and I’m still really good friends with lots of people on it, but it’s hard to be thrust into the public eye like that,” he says. “Living under that microscope for three months is strange old experience. I can see why some people find it really, really difficult, People don’t like the online attention, and all the stuff on social media.”

Death threats have also been a factor of his life, both on Football Focus, as well as when he upset on thesofa.

“I mentioned a particular football team once on Football Focus years ago, and somebody said that they wanted to kill my kids,” he said. “I asked a pop star a few years ago a question that I don’t think he particularly enjoyed, even though it had been pre arranged.

“But then I had, four or five death threats after that one, but most of them were from young girls in Brazil.” He says that he makes sure he regularly talks to his three children, which is a trait he picked up from his own parents.

“We do have lots of conversations. And the school they’re in is great at doing that as well. My parents always spoke to me, and I’m a talker. I don’t mind having conversations about any difficult subject matter.”

As well as his TV work, Dan is passionate about his charity. A recent fundraising evening at The Comedy Store in London hosted by Richardson raised £35,000 for Bright Young Dreams, which will go towards new children’s mental health initiatives to be piloted at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. They will later be rolled out across the wider NHS.

“We’re having really important conversations with not just big business, but Government and people who run the ,” he says.

“Every time we do an event, every time we give a speech, people come up to you afterwards in tears. They could be a successful businessman or woman saying ‘my kids are really struggling…and I don’t know what to do.'

“I don’t know how we’ve got to this situation, but there’s got a better way of doing this.”

Bright Young Dreams is a children’s mental health campaign founded by Jessica Ennis-Hill with support from Dan Walker and Jon Richardson. The campaign raises funds and awareness in aid of The Children’s Hospital Charity, which supports Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

*If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email or visit their site to find your local branch