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Tonight on Channel 4, the remaining eight SAS: Who Dares Wins contestants will fight to finish the toughest military course. Ahead of the series concluding, recruit Vicki spoke exclusively
to Express.co.uk about her time on the show. And she revealed just how difficult the artic conditions were to survive in. During the conversation, Vicki was asked whether or not the show
was as tough as the viewers see. She confirmed: “Oh my God, yes, it’s harder than what you see on tv. “There are so many things you can’t appreciate and that’s no criticism to the viewer,
it’s just that it’s so difficult to have a real understanding of what that anxiety and stress does to your body and mind. “That is such a draining thing to be permanently on alert and 24
hours a day, we didn’t know how long we had to rest, what we were going to eat, what we were physically going to have to do and mentally prepare ourselves for, you are not in control of
anything. “Our bodies were in bits, we were cut, grazed, bruised and the altitude was impossible,” Vicki continued before revealing how badly she was really affected. “I had a chest
infection for most of the time I was there, I am amazed that hasn’t actually come out on TV they’ve obviously edited that out really well because I was hacking cough the whole time. “It took
me a month to recover easily. I was having nightmares for a month after we had got back.” But it wasn’t just the altitude, cold conditions and tough challenges that the contestants had to
struggle with. During their two weeks in Chile, the recruits were cut off from reality, however Vicki suggested contestants got to communicate with friends and family on certain occasions.
“I know in previous series there has been an option, ‘did you want to have a call home, or see someone on video link’. “I think I decided before I went in I didn’t want to have to do
that. But it was tough.” As to the physical challenges she faced during the course, she explained: “Physically I was obviously pushed to my limits, but I think I managed most of the
physical tasks pretty well. I’ve got a really good engine [body] on me and I train really hard. SAS WHO DARES WINS 2019: FORMER CONTESTANT SPEAKS OUT ON DELETED SCENE “The things you can’t
necessarily account for are the tasks around water and heights and I do have a fear of water and heights. “I think I pretty much on the course conquered my fear of heights if I’m honest,
because I just learnt a strategy to have to deal with that. “I’m not sure about water. I think I’ve probably made that fear worse with the outcome of the water task, but you know, it’s all
like a learning process really and working out how to develop strategies for not necessarily curing fears but finding new ways to temporarily overcome them for the time you need to then to
carry on after that,’ Vicki discussed. In terms of what was the toughest moment she faced the recruit spoke about the early days of the course. “There was a moment quite early on in the
series/the course where just the overriding anxiety on various levels about different things had really started to get to me. “I remember thinking ‘I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to
last’ so that was only about five days in, because you’re on a permanent state of high anxiety, high adrenaline and you just never know what’s coming next. “That started to overwhelm me at
one point and then I seemed to get through that. “The challenge in episode five, the ladder walk, I was honestly truly terrified of doing that. And probably that was my biggest success in a
way, when I went to do it I believe I did it really well and that was a huge moment for me. “I don’t think anyone, including me expected me to do that so well. That’s real proof, if you can
get control of your brain you can set your mind to anything,” she concluded. _SAS: WHO DARES WINS CONCLUDES TONIGHT AT 9PM ON CHANNEL 4. _