Luke Humphries has stepped up to tackle the issue of bullying head-on, earning himself the title of an anti-bullying crusader by taking a strong stand against school bullies. In a touching gesture, 'Cool Hand' Luke has arranged a special VIP night for a young autistic darts enthusiast from Stockport who was bullied so severely that his parents felt compelled to remove him from school.

The world No. 1 darts player was moved by the story of 14 year old Alex McGarrie, who will now experience a dream meet-and-greet with world champion Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, and other Premier League stars at the AO Arena in Manchester.

Humphries, disturbed by the extent of Alex's suffering, opened up about his motivation: "I got tagged in something on social media and I clicked on the link to read about it. Obviously, the standard of bullying he has suffered seemed quite excessive.

"That could really get someone down. There's some horrible stories over the years of people being bullied and they end up killing themselves or stuff like that, so if you can help someone out in any way physically possible, you just do it."

Humphries revealed the challenge of responding to all requests for help: "Look, I can't help everyone out - I get lots of messages from people saying, 'I'm struggling with my health, can I get tickets?'

"But I'm doing this for a young kid because I don't want him to think that all people in the world are negative and I want to give him a little bit of hope.

"Hopefully this is something that he can enjoy, maybe put a smile on his face again, because he's not going to school at the moment - his mum and dad have taken him out - and he's pretty feeling glum at the moment.

"I've asked his dad who's his favourite player. I think Luke Littler is his inspiration, so I'm going to try and get a signed shirt off Luke. Then obviously he's going to meet all the players and the PDC have kindly given him some tickets as well. It's all in place.

"Maybe some of the bullies are darts fans and they will see him having a great time because money can't buy this type of thing.

"I just hope some good comes out of it - I'd rather they didn't bully him and he didn't have to go through this. But, hopefully, it gives him a bit of hope.

"We'll make sure we give him some support and look after him because, obviously, bullies have no place."

Former world champion Humphries is a class act who rarely falls out with rival players.

He was taken aback by James Wade's behaviour in their frosty UK Open semi-final in Minehead earlier this month, when the 'Machine' bizarrely licked his opponent on the neck - which may yet exercise disciplinary watchdogs at the Darts Regulation Authority.

Asked if he had kissed and made up with Wade, Humphries said: "Yes - there's not a lot more I can say about it.

"There's water under the bridge now. You see each other the next week on the circuit and we're fine. These things happen in darts.

"We've seen it many, many times over the years where two players have had a disagreement and they're friends again. So, yeah, we're fine now."

In a show of unity, Humphries has agreed to participate in Wade's charity event, Let's Talk Bipolar, set to take place in Hampshire on August 22.