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Chris McCausland, the comic and Strictly Come Dancing superstar, has made history because the first blind contestant on the demonstrate. At 47 years outdated, the inspirational figure is determined to dazzle audiences with his partner Dianne Buswell of their stay dance floor debut tonight, with fans eagerly awaiting the efficiency from the daddy-of-one.
But, 25 years prior, Chris confronted a devastating diagnosis that would alter his life’s trajectory, casting doubt on the likelihood of ever taking part in a demonstrate treasure Strictly.
On the age of 22, Chris changed into as soon as diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary situation that causes revolutionary vision loss because of this of the degeneration of cells in the retina. This uncommon see disease slowly diminishes the retina’s feature, ensuing in a gradual loss of sight.
In an emotional interview with the i newspaper, Chris recounted his experience with losing his vision, noting the familial nature of the location: “My grandmother had it, and my mum. Basically, I’d been going blind very slowly since I was born, and so didn’t even really notice it happening.”
He additional outlined the impact of his blindness on somewhat about a senses: “They say that when you lose your sight, your hearing gets better. It doesn’t. But you do pay more attention to it. So when you’re sat at a beach resort, and you’re hot, and you can’t see what’s around you, then you just end up concentrating on how hot you actually are. I suffer more for it.”, stories the Explicit.
Strictly’s first blind contestant
(Image: (Image: Getty Photos))
Chris, who opened up about his drag into blindness in the Channel 4 series ‘Horrified of the Unlit’, has described how he retains the flexibility to “still see light and space” and possesses “an awareness of the space around me, not in terms of objects and things, but in terms of the room and whether there might be something in front of me”.
He’s now making history on Strictly Come Dancing because the demonstrate’s first-ever blind contestant. Speaking candidly to the Explicit and somewhat about a shops sooner than the demonstrate kicked off, Chris admitted that he changed into as soon as “winging it”, which he believes is the “best way”.
He detailed how his authentic dance partner Dianne has by no intention labored with somebody who’s blind sooner than, announcing: “We’re just gonna have to figure it out as we go along. The production team are just being really flexible. My dance partner is figuring out how to teach me. And we are winging it. That’s the best way I think.”
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell
(Image: (Image: BBC))
Discussing his experiences in rehearsals, Chris highlighted the difficulty of getting conversant in bounce shoes, noting: “The part of the problem for me is wearing shoes that I’m not used to walking in. I can’t feel the floor through the shoes properly.”
Furthermore, Chris mentioned that the producers had originally proposed having a specialist from an organisation that teaches visually impaired folk to help with coordinating his working against with Dianne. On the opposite hand, he wasn’t sharp about the premise, expressing his deserve to “blunder his way through” the studying route of as an different.
He expressed: “In my opinion, the point of it is for my partner to learn how to teach me and me to learn a dance from her and that’s for us to figure it out together. We’ll make mistakes and we’ll have a laugh along the way and that’ll make for better VTs in the week, really.”
Strictly Come Dancing is broadcast on BBC One at 7pm.
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