Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland was 'distraught' at being mocked over eyesight

BBC Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland has opened up about being mocked at school and the 'trauma' he still carries with him to this day

Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland has shared his experiences of being ridiculed for his poor eyesight during his school years.

The comedian sailed through to next week's episode over the weekend, as he and partner Dianne Buswell wowed the judges with their salsa to achieve a respectable 30 points.

Fans of the BBC show have been left in tears by the level of Chris' performances despite being blind.

But the 47-year-old comedian opened up on LBC presenter James O'Brien's Full Disclosure podcast about the challenges he faced due to his hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

Chris recounted that initially, his deteriorating vision didn't affect his treatment at school, but as he and his peers grew older, things changed. He reflected on how childhood traumas can shape adult behaviour, recalling a particular moment in school.

Chris said: "When you're young, a lot of the memories you have are of trauma or bad things, and not even a trauma from what we could consider to be trauma, but just things that obviously caused distress or stress just to even a moderate degree, they kind of stay burned in your mind.

"I still remember in one school assembly where we had to stand up and say something that we'd got that year and my teacher said, 'Well you should say about your new glasses', and she said, 'But I think you should say spectacles'.

"And I remember doing this thing and standing up in the class and saying, 'This year I got some new spectacles' and all the other kids laughed."

"But they didn't laugh with me, they laughed at me with what I'd said, and I remember being so upset about that. I was so distraught that all these kids had laughed at me about this thing, and it's mad."

Discussing the gradual loss of his sight from childhood to early adulthood, Chris continued: "From my point of view, losing your eyesight very, very gradually - it's like the frog in the water - you don't notice the changes."

He explained how the incremental change in vision went largely unnoticed by peers but did affect his interaction with everyday school life. "And so the kids around me probably don't notice the slight differences happening that I don't notice happening in terms of struggling to see the blackboard, but I do remember that being a thing," Chris added.

Reflecting on the contrasts of his life experiences, he noted: "The irony is, obviously, scarred as a child from a room full of people laughing at me, to now desiring a room full of people to laugh at me."