Don't Look Down - Interview with Chris Hughes

10 October 2023

Why did you sign up for Don’t Look Down?
I wanted to get involved with it – and I can speak on behalf of the team here – because there’s an element of challenging yourself, stepping completely outside of your comfort zone, learning a new skill, whilst also doing it for an amazing cause.

Cancer is something which affects people we know, friends, family, people who are still with us, people who aren’t with us, and we can take that with us on this journey on the show, the tough times and the emotional strain that we’ve gone through while we’ve been in Austria.

It’s just been great and so much fun to film with the best group of people – I couldn’t have asked for nine better colleagues, teammates, to do this with. I’ve loved every minute of it.

In what ways has your life been impacted by cancer?
Obviously, my brother [Ben]. Going on This Morning [in 2018] and doing that live testicular examination, to do that and go home to bed and not think anything of it, and then your brother the next day being diagnosed with testicular cancer off the back of that. You know, still to this day, if I didn’t do that on This Morning – he says to this day, he never would have checked himself. Then with the documentary [2020’s Me, My Brother and Our Balls] we wanted to break down that stigma around, especially, male health.

The reason why I wanted to do the examination… was because my cousin had testicular cancer. His became secondary at the abdomen, so his cancer spread. He ignored the signs initially and it spread into his abdomen and could have been fatal. Luckily, he managed to overcome that, and he’s had children since. But seeing by brother’s ongoing struggle with his fertility has been really tough. You can see the effect, the physical effect it takes, not only on him, but also the people around [him], like my mum. As mums do, they’re such great figures, but they blame themselves for the situations of their loved ones, and they shouldn’t.

Having people close to you and seeing what they go through, it’s a blessing for us to be able to come in and put ourselves in these positions and help raise money for cancer.

Has training gone smoothly? Or have there been a few bumps along the way?
The bar is very heavy. You won’t be able to feel it as a viewer, but the bar is extremely heavy. It’s pure forearm strength because you’re having to keep it still and in position. One day, we also had to go up a dam, climb a dam, 130-metres up, and well, I failed miserably. Me and Grace failed miserably.

Grace mentioned that a few tears were shed…
People who know me know I’m a very emotional person. The tears just come. When I’m in an absolute pickle of a situation and it’s a phobia, my body – I can’t control it, my eyes just go, and I start tearing up and I freeze.

Do you feel confident you’ll be able to complete the final challenge?
Yeah, you’ve got to be! You have to be confident. If you haven’t got the confidence, we’re going to struggle.