Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland left 'distraught' after being mocked over eyesight

Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland has shared how he was mocked for his glasses at school in a recent podcast with James O'Brien - as his professional dance partner Dianne Buswell praised him

Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland has opened up about the bullying he faced at school due to his deteriorating eyesight.

The comedian has been wowing fans of the show in recent weeks with his impressive performances on the ballroom despite his visual impairment. He left fans in tears on Saturday with a brilliant salsa routine which saw him breeze through to the next round with a score of 30 points from the judges.

In an interview with LBC presenter James O'Brien on the Full Disclosure podcast, the 47-year-old comedian discussed his experiences with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive vision impairment.

He recalled that as a young child, his sight loss didn't affect how his peers treated him, but as they grew older, things changed. Reflecting on how childhood traumas can have a lasting impact, Chris shared a powerful memory from his school days.

One incident that has stuck with him was when a teacher encouraged him to share something new about his life with the class.

Chris said: "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."

Chris also spoke about the gradual loss of his eyesight from childhood into his early 20s.

He 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, and when you join school when you're four and your eyesight...there's less you need to cope with when you're four years old, you know what I mean?"

He added: "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.

"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."