Chelsee Healey: 'I shared a tent with a Spice Girl!'

Waterloo Road and Strictly Come dancing star Chelsee Healey will be paddling 100km down the Zambezi River in Africa to raise money for Comic Relief in Through Hell and High Water next Thursday (BBC1)...

This sounds like an epic adventure...

"
It was the hardest week of my life! It was definitely one of the biggest challenges I've ever taken on. I experienced every emotion that you can think of during the trip, it was hard work, it was heart-breaking when we met the children and it was a massive sense of achievement when we completed it!"

You did the challenge with comedians Dara O'Briain and Jack Dee, Olympian Phillips Idowu, Spice Girl Mel C and Radio DJ Greg James. How did you all get on?

"We all got on really well. There were no arguments - which was amazing when you consider how stressful it was at times - I couldn't have asked for a better group. We all really supported each other and they looked after me! Dara and Jack Dee were great value and they kept us laughing whenever we were going through difficult times. It was great to have a couple of comedians in the group. I had great banter with Phillips and Greg too!"

Who were you camping with?

"I was sharing a tent with a Spice Girl - which was amazing! Thankfully she didn't snore!"

What was the scariest moment of your trip?

"The scariest moment was when we went passed the hippos, I've never experienced anything like it in my life. Those animals were massive and we didn't want to disturb them so I had to hold my breath when we went past them - we were so close! Apparently they kill 3,000 people a year in Africa so they're very dangerous."

Was it difficult getting to sleep at night?

"There was all sorts of noises during the night, so we didn't get much sleep. We had mosquito nets, but some of them got through so we were itching all night as well. The wildlife was not good - I'm not a fan!"

How did you manage without all your creature comforts?

"I'm not sure how I coped for so long to be honest. All my family and friends were saying 'You ain't going to get through this Chelsee!' before I went, but I'm stronger than people think. The first day I put a bit [of make-up] on and then sweated it off and then gave up! I didn't have make-up on for five days, which isn't like me, but when you're paddling down a river that's the least of your worries. That was the longest I've gone without make-up in my life!"

Did anyone fall in the river?

"Mel C and Jack Dee's book went over and then Dara fell in. We thought we'd lost him, but he was just hanging off a tree for an hour! I didn't see it happen because me and Greg had paddled ahead, so we had to go back and then everyone was like 'Phillips and Dara have gone missing!' There were crocodiles everywhere so we were dead relieved when we found him!"

Did you meet any of the children you were raising money for?

"One day we walked two hours walking to school with these children and spent a couple of hours in school with them. For children as small as they were to be walking four hours a day, there and back, was absolutely horrendous, they had no shoes on their feet and the heat was terrible! That was the hardest thing to cope with, but the fact that they still had smiles on their faces was so inspiring!"

 

Sean Marland

Sean is a Senior Feature writer for TV Times, What's On TV and TV & Satellite Week, who also writes for whattowatch.com. He's been covering the world of TV for over 15 years and in that time he's been lucky enough to interview stars like Ian McKellen, Tom Hardy and Kate Winslet. His favourite shows are I'm Alan Partridge, The Wire, People Just Do Nothing and Succession and in his spare time he enjoys drinking tea, doing crosswords and watching football.