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Privacy NoticeStrictly Come Dancing’s Chris McCausland has opened up about the struggles he faced in school due to his vision impairment. Chatting with James O’Brien on the Full Disclosure podcast, the 47-year-old comedian got real about how his condition, retinitis pigmentosa, impacted his life and the bullying he endured. Chris revealed that initially, his worsening eyesight didn’t affect how his classmates treated him, but as they grew older, things changed. He reflected on the profound impact of childhood traumas, explaining that even moderate distress can leave a lasting mark. He shared: “When you’re young, a lot of the memories you have are of trauma or bad things, and not even a trauma from what we could consider to be trauma, but just things that obviously caused distress or stress just to even a moderate degree, they kind of stay burned in your mind.”
Comedian Chris recalled a time that impacted on him growing up
(Image: (Image: BBC))
The comic then shared a painful memory from his school days that still lingers. As reported by the Manchester Evening News, he recounted: “I still remember in one school assembly where we had to stand up and say something that we’d got that year and my teacher said, ‘Well you should say about your new glasses’, and she said, ‘But I think you should say spectacles'”. Chris went on to describe the humiliation he felt when he followed his teacher’s advice which resulted in the other kids “laughing”. Chris opened up about the difficult moment from his childhood, sharing the worse part was that they “didn’t laugh with me, they laughed at me”. Discussing his gradual loss of sight from when he was young, Chris detailed to James: “From my point of view, losing your eyesight very, very gradually – it’s like the frog in the water – you don’t notice the changes, and when you join school when you’re four and your eyesight… there’s less you need to cope with when you’re four years old, you know what I mean? And so the kids around me probably don’t notice the slight differences happening that I don’t notice happening in terms of struggling to see the blackboard, but I do remember that being a thing.”
Chris is currently on Strictly Come Dancing, and is their first blind contestant
(Image: PA)
Reflecting on how things turned out, Chris mused that the “irony” of it all is how he used to hate people laughing at him, and now he “desires” to have a “full room of people to laugh at me”. Currently lighting up the Strictly Come Dancing stage, comedian Chris is wowing audiences alongside pro dancer Dianne Buswell. Dianne recently gushed over him on Instagram, enthusing: “Mind blown yet again by this incredible man @chrismccauslandcomedy thank you for trusting me with every step we take! Even though sometimes what I’m asking you to do must sound so bonkers half/all of the time.” Dianne showed her appreciation with a sweet thank you to her supporters: “Thank you all so much for your votes and your kind words we see them and they really do help us push along. Week four let’s have ya.”Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnStrictly Come Dancing
