Dan Walker shares friend Gary Speed's tragic final words to him that 'changed' him forever

Dan Walker has shared his close friend Gary Speed’s tragic final words to him before he died by suicide.

The Channel 5 News presenter, 47, worked with the Welsh footballer on Football Focus and was one of the last people to speak to him before he died aged 42 in November 2011.

Walker recalled being on the Football Focus sofa with Speed the day before his passing and how the athlete had devastatingly made plans with him to meet up.

“We left on great terms, and Gary’s last words were: ‘I’ll ring you Monday and we’ll organize a game of golf,’” he told The Mirror.

Walker was left “poleaxed” when he learned his friend had died and has since gone over everything about their final day together 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?” the former BBC Breakfast News presenter said.

Speed’s death made Walker passionate about improving children’s mental health and he has launched the charity, Bright Young Dreams, with Jessica Ennis-Hill and comedian Jon Richardson.

“The darker times including Gary have informed a lot of conversations that I’ve been having around the charity. You can’t be unchanged by that. I think maybe, hopefully, it’s turned me to be a better listener,” the Strictly star said.

Walker also revealed Speed’s sons, Ed and Tommy, who were 14 and 13 at the time of his death, are now in “a decent place” and “trying to move on with their lives”.

Speed died at his home in Chester on November 27, 2011.

On the 10th anniversary of his death, his wife Louise Speed reflected on her grief and how she has coped since the tragedy.

Louise - who met Speed when she was 15 - told the Daily Mail his death “was like being in the worst nightmare possible” and that she thinks of him “every single day”.

“There were no answers and no Gary walking through the door again. Nothing was ever going to be right again,” she added.

"I was trudging through life, just functioning. If I could have been anybody else apart from me, for a long time, I would have happily taken it.”

Louise praised her sons for the way they have coped in the aftermath of their father’s death, saying: “Somehow we managed it, together, and Gary would be so proud.”

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