TEST FOR SPECIAL

IT’S not every day a patient is wheeled into A&E with a face plastered in combat paint.

My fatigues have been cut away above the knee to expose a gaping wound, while muddy water sloshes from my boots on the hospital floor.

When I had taken up the challenge to swap my reporter’s suit for a special forces outfit to take on TV hardman Ant Middleton, I never thought it would end like this.

An hour earlier I’d been yomping through woods, weighed down with a big Bergen pack as special forces veterans screamed in my ears.

Taking part in trials from Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins to mark the show’s return tonight, I had been pleased with my efforts. The “enemy” was hot on our group’s tails but we had found an extraction point as gunfire and explosions rang out.

I’d already passed the tough “selection” process, in which a hood was pulled over my head and I was driven in darkness to a mystery location.

The morning was spent chasing ex-Special Boat Service man Ant and his comrades, including Mark “Billy” Billingham and Matthew “Ollie” Ollerton, around. Every few hundred yards we were ordered to hit the deck or tackle an obstacle.

After just a few minutes everyone was gasping for breath. Most soon ditched the weights that had been put in our packs for added realism but I soldiered on with mine.

I’d crawled, hauled, run and swung.. then fell on a perfectly placed rock OUR MAN ALAN ON HOW SAS DAY ABRUPTLY ENDED

CHALLENGE