Darts is widely known as the domain of the working class, beer-swilling, fat guy. The sport is one of only a handful that can be enjoyed simultaneously with six pints of beer and a packet of pork scratchings.

The stereotype is damaging the sport, however, and when a competitor begins to buckle beneath the weight of his lifestyle, media moguls start blaming the myriad associations and governing bodies that are supposed to be taking care of their athletes.

Andy ‘The Viking’ Fordham weighed thirty-one stone when he collapsed at the Darts World Championship in 2007. He attributed his goliath size to a lifetime of binge drinking on the pub circuit and a diet that consisted largely of takeaways and enough trans-fat to make an elephant sick.

The player was recently quoted as saying: "The doctors told me if I carried on drinking I would be dead within 10 years. It is just one of those things you don't think will happen to you. It is always someone else."

After a failed stint on TV’s Celebrity Fit Club, Andy recruited the expertise of top London physician, Dr John O'Grady, who has since helped the Englishman shed over seventeen stone.

However, unfortunately for Andy, his liver, despite showing signs of improvement, is beyond repair and will eventually need to be replaced.

Expert predictions show that only a small minority of people on the liver transplant list show any sign of recovery following extensive abuse but Andy, despite languishing in the depths of alcoholism for decades, has thankfully found his place within that margin.

Andy has been described as an inspiration for anybody who is hoping to change his or her lifestyle. The Viking began his return to the professional darts circuit on the 4th of December 2008 but has made it clear that the days when his dressing room quickly came to resemble the interior of a bottle bank are long gone.