Don't Look Down - Interview with Charley Boorman

10 October 2023

Why did you sign up for Don’t Look Down?
When they asked me to do it, I thought if you were going to go wire-walking in normal life, you would go to the circus and become a wire-walker, you certainly wouldn’t choose to casually go and do it. So, that was part of it. But for me, cancer is… my twin sister had breast cancer, I have had testicular cancer and my older sister died of ovarian cancer.

I am so sorry to hear that, Charley.
It was a while ago now. She left behind a six-year-old child and stuff that we all had to take on. I have also lost friends to cancer and I’ve seen – like all of us - the devastation that it leaves behind. I think raising money for it is so important.

When I was diagnosed with testicular cancer [in 2010], they’d just changed the way testicular cancer was treated. It went from being something you could die from to something that’s almost impossible to die from now. I benefitted massively from people’s generous donations, and so I seized the opportunity to come here, to meet some interesting people and learn a skill that is quite amazing, but most importantly to raise money – it’s paying it forward, that for me was the main cause really.

Another important thing as well is, when you’re with your partner, you can check each other out once a week and then that leads also to some fun things [laughs]. It’s a win-win situation. It’s the only way forward – it’s important and it’s fun.

How was your testicular cancer diagnosed?
My wife took our dog to the vet and the last thing he checked was the dog’s nuts. One of the nuts felt a bit hard and he said, “You should keep an eye on that nut, it’s a bit hard.” My wife went, “Christ, one of my husband’s testicles is quite hard.” The vet goes, “You should definitely get that checked out.” A week later, I was lying on the hospital slab having my testicle taken out and the surgeon looking down at me said, “Don’t worry Charley, it’s just like shelling peas” [Laughs]. I woke up with one testicle and now have one prosthetic one. It’s just a piece of rubber.

How have you found training? I know a few years ago you were involved in an accident and had to learn how to walk again.
I lost an inch of my leg. It was a motorcycle accident back in 2016. Going into this, I kind of brushed over the injuries because, you know, I had 20-odd operations to walk again and I thought that would put them [producers] off if I named all the crap I’ve been through. But I was really worried about my ankles and the one short leg, and how that would affect me. Jade [Kindar-Martin, lead trainer], being this incredible guru, he is noticed that I was walking with my pole leaning over to the left and he said, “Hang on a minute Charley, why is it leaning to the left?” He found out about my leg and then said, “Just shuffle your pole over, so there’s a bit more weight on that side.” And boom!

Do you feel confident you’ll be able to complete the final challenge
Absolutely!