Speaking to the Radio St Helier presenter from the restaurant of St Helier Hospital, the six time gold medallist discussed his successes in the 2012 Paralympics, his gruelling training sessions and living locally with family.
Kicking off the show with a song request, David then went onto explain why he had taken time out of his busy schedule to visit the hospital. He said: “I was born at St Helier, and so were my children – it’s my local hospital, so it’s always nice to come and visit.” And of course, St Helier hospital isn’t the only local landmark linked to David, as a nearby sports arena was renamed the David Weir Leisure Centre in his honour.
Add that to his CBE from the Queen and being awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of his sporting achievements, and it’s clear that David is a local hero.
And although David won four gold medals in the 2012 Paralympics, and has won the London Marathon six times, he’s still gearing up for more games. Speaking about his training session ahead of the racing season, he said: “It can be gruelling training through winter, but it doesn’t really matter if there’s 10 feet of snow outside your door or is it’s minus 10 degrees – I know that all of my competitors across the world are getting up and going training, so I have to do that too.
“But you know, even after a really difficult session, I go home and spend time with my family, and all of the stresses of work melt away – it’s hard to think about a training session when your kids just want to play!”
Presenter David Blackmore was delighted to welcome David to the hospital (and even got to try on a gold medal). He said: “David was absolutely brilliant from start to finish. A true professional, he was honest, friendly, warm, personable, and I really liked everything about him.
"People always say don't meet your heroes because they'll disappoint you but David was everything I thought he would be and more. We also received a lot of feedback from patients who had tuned in. People were saying to our volunteers collecting requests for that evening's request show, how great it was that David came into Radio St Helier.
"A few told us it was the highlight of their week and had put them in a much better mood. It was wonderful to hear that from the patients because that's why we all volunteer at Radio St Helier."
He added: "We'd like to say a huge thank you to David for making so many St Helier hospital patients happy and for giving up his time to be a guest on my Good News Show. We hope his winter training programme goes brilliantly and we're looking forward to cheering him on in April when he goes for a record seventh London Marathon win."
Our picture shows Radio St Helier presenter David Blackmore with David Weir