Strictly's Chris McCausland's heartbreaking 'refusal' over his blindness and 'constant frustration'

Comedian Chris McCausland is the first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and has opened up about his 'constant frustration' and more on what his sight loss condition is

Strictly Come Dancing returned with its live shows last weekend and comedian Chris McCausland blew away viewers with his fantastic routine with pro-dancer, Dianne Buswell. The 47 year old stand-up, who will be the first blind contestant on the popular BBC series has previously confessed that he had never watched Strictly before and had "no burning desire" to take part, but such is his determination to not let his blindness stop him he jumped on the sequined bandwagon for the 20th anniversary series anyway.

However, Chris' determined nature comes from losing his site as a young adult, as the comic could see as a child, and his refusal to bow down to the condition, more on what it is, below. Chris said: "It's difficult when you're losing your sight so subtly.

"There's never a moment you've got to deal with. So if somebody has an accident and the next day they're disabled, they've got a huge moment of trauma and they've got to come to terms with that. But when you're losing your sight noticeably slowly, it's just kind of a constant phase of frustration and denial really."

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"And you don't realise that you can't do things until maybe something happens that you realise, 'Oh, maybe I shouldn't do that anymore.' The last time I played football, I put myself in hospital and I thought, 'Well, that's my football days done.' But each of these things happen separately, you know what I mean? And when you grew up with a very normal childhood, playing in the streets childhood with mates, and you're a teenager in Liverpool and in your early twenties, you want to be cool or trendy or whatever."

He adds: "So there's a huge kind of refusal to get on board with the whole blind thing, I think. You know, like using a stick. I was never comfortable with it. I think as a result I'm still not comfortable with it. I'm still not good at it. I think I'm not comfortable with it now because I haven't got the confidence with all that kind of stuff. I haven't got the confidence with it because I was so resistant to it through my twenties that I've never really got massively on board with it all. But luckily we've got Uber now! "

What has Chris been on before?

Chris is known for his appearances on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You and 8 Out of 10 Cats, and for hosting The Chris McCausland Show.

He was also on Channel 4's Scared of the Dark in 2023 which saw eight famous faces living, eating and sleeping in complete darkness. The psychological experiment looks at the mounting the pressures of light deprivation as they carry out a number of tasks.

What is Chris' eyesight condition?

Chris suffers from a chronic hereditary eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). This condition causes the retina, a layer of light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, to deteriorate, leading to gradual vision loss.

Chris, who could see as a child, lost his sight over time, describing it as a "constant phase of frustration and denial". He explained: "People go, "Well, when did you go blind?

"And it's very hard to say because when your eyesight deteriorates steadily, you stop being able to do different things at different stages. So you stop being able to see in the dark, or seeing dusk, or see your computer screen, or read a printed book, all of these different things happen at different times. But I kind of say late teens to early twenties, that kind of five year period from maybe 16 to 21 is when the bulk of the useful stuff just went."

According to the NHS, RP is characterized by the deterioration of light-sensing cells in the retina, resulting in vision loss, and is often marked by a black pigmented appearance of the retina. Chris, from Liverpool, struggled with the subtle progression of his sight loss, saying

Chris's participation in Strictly provides him with a platform to showcase the abilities of visually impaired individuals. The comedian stated: "I'm serious about 'Strictly'. I want to show just how capable and resilient blind people are."

"There's a misperception that we are helpless but in fact we are hugely adaptable and amazing problem-solvers. Yet there's a 73 per cent unemployment rate among blind people of working age in this country because employers just don't have the necessary vision to give us a chance. I want to change that although if I'm useless it will be a bit of an own goal."