BBC Strictly’s Tyler West opens up on ‘upsetting’ and ‘frustrating’ trip
Big-hearted Tyler West has launched a charity appeal to coincide with the anniversary of his last Strictly dance at Blackpool Tower last year – and he’s shared heartbreaking moments behind the scenes with Express.co.uk.
It follows his tearjerking trip last month visiting communities with no access to clean running water in poor areas of Zambia, which left him “frustrated” and angry.
“There were multiple times when it ate me up. I felt all the emotions. I felt upset, I felt frustrated,” Tyler exclaimed.
He heard some “harsh realities” from a woman he met there who made a two-hour round trip to collect water, three times per day – and the supply was “infected” and contaminated with insects.
“The nearest hospital was four and a half hours away and I asked her what people do if they can’t walk there,” the Kiss FM DJ explained.
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“She said some people just choose to accept it and live with illness and some people sadly die.
“Most of the children were sick and most of the children weren’t able to go to school because there weren’t facilities and they were having to go out into the bush and collect water from a dirty stream.”
He confided: “I think back to my days on a South London estate dreaming… how can some of these children even begin to dream when they haven’t got clean water? It’s a necessity.
“It’s a basic human right to have clean water. That hit me hard.”
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Tyler also spoke to a teacher during his time in Zambia who walked an hour and a half each morning to reach a makeshift school with no toilet facilities.
However, it was the lack of disease-free water that touched the DJ’s heart the most.
“It shouldn’t be that way, that one in 10 people around the world don’t have access to clean water,” he lamented.
Tyler’s work in Zambia follows on from a holiday in The Gambia where he “ventured out into the local community”, discovered villagers who were “really struggling” and was motivated to begin fundraising.
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“[With the funds raised], they got electricity fitted within the school that then enabled the water pump to come back alive and the plantation that they were working on was able to grow vegetables again,” he exclaimed.
That inspired Tyler to support WaterAid’s new Water Means Life appeal, which he has now described as “one of the top highlights” of his career.
Meanwhile, now that he’s back home from his trip, he’s reflecting on his memories, while staying glued to the screen for Strictly, which gives him “FOMO” now that he’s no longer a contestant on the dancefloor.
To find out more about WaterAid’s winter appeal Water Means Life, which helps communities in Zambia and around the world to get clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene, visit www.wateraid.org.
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