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TV Quickfire: Calum Best and Ashley Cain on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins

With Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins returning to Channel 4, we found out more from contestants Calum Best and Ashley Cain about what's in store...

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins: Calum Best
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins: Calum Best Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins: Calum Best

WHY DID YOU WANT TO PUT YOURSELF THROUGH THE CHALLENGE OF CELEBRITY SAS: WHO DARES WINS?

Ashley Cain: Losing my daughter Azaylia [who died of leukaemia at eight months] was the most difficult experience of my life. I think to combat trauma you need to step outside your comfort zone and see who you really are. There's no better way to do that than on Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins, so when the opportunity came I took it with both hands.

I really wanted to find out who I was, so I wanted to see whether I put my money where my mouth is. I said I was going to be strong for my daughter, and I was going to continue to fight for my daughter. I wanted to put that in action as soon as I possibly could.

Calum Best: It's an opportunity, I feel, that you can use life experience and see how much they've helped you grow. That right there is something that will put everything to the test you've ever been through, to let you know whether you think you're at a good place of growth, or if there's still a lot more growing to be done. And I think that with something like this, there's always growing to be done.

DID YOU DO ANY TRAINING BEFORE GOING IN?

AC: Yeah, I was going out running and I was doing all of that stuff because that's what I used to do as a coping mechanism anyway. I know people who had done it before, but I didn't want to cheat. It's difficult because I don't really surround myself with a lot of people anymore because they're not really on my frequency.

But if you know me, you understand how seriously I take everything in life now because I know how easy it can slip away and I know that we can't take life for granted. So when I was going to do this experience, I wanted to go in raw. I wanted to go into the unknown and I wanted to find who I am. I wanted to see if I could make it out the other end.

CB: I think that on a mental level, you can just hope that your experiences in life will prepare you. But on a physical, everybody wanted to be their physically fittest because before, in lockdown in our hotel, everyone's in the gym, everyone's running, everyone's training. And you can tell everyone was somewhat prepared for what it is.

But when you get in there, the duck walks, the bear crawl, the sand dunes, in the water, out the water, the monkey bars, everything all put together is another level of fitness that on a personal level my body had never been to before. But it's your mind that gets you through it.

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP THE EXPERIENCE?

AC: It was a great experience. And you know what? I didn't want anybody to have sympathy for me because of what happened to my daughter, because that's our life. And that's what it was good for, because I went in there and I didn't get any special treatment, I didn't get any sympathy. I had to deal with my problems and I had to push through the pain and do what I had to do.I think it was good for me. It was a very humbling experience. But it was also a very tough and challenging experience.

:: Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday September 4.