Broken ribs, falling from a helicopter ..after losing Mum I can face anything
How singer found the strength to battle on
History, but the whole of the UK. I really hope young black girls and boys see people like me and believe that if we are able achieve what we have in our field of work, they can do it too.”
Alexandra has been pushed to her limits on the series, fans watching as she walked a tightrope across a ravine, pulled herself on to a speed boat from the freezing water off the coast of Scotland and was gassed in a mock chemical warfare challenge.
Five of the line-up were forced out through injury, including former footballer Kieron Dyer, 42, who punctured a lung after breaking his ribs, and reality star Jake Quickenden, 33, who tore his bicep muscle from the bone.
Alexandra broke her ribs during an abseil, but kept quiet in case she was medically withdrawn from the show.
She recalls: “I felt something go, I probably should have said something, but I didn’t.
“Then when I had to capsize the boat, and it hit my head and made it worse.
“That was it for me, I was done, I literally couldn’t move, my ribs broke.
“I kept going though and basically just lived off painkillers in order to get through it. I’ve never ever been the type of person that’s quit anything.”
A strength she picked up from her mum, perhaps?
“Yeah, my mum always said to me that she didn’t raise a quitter. So all I could hear was my mum going, ‘Keep f***ing going, you’ve come this far’.
“Everything that I’ve done and achieved up until that point I didn’t think I could do. So a broken rib was not going to stop me.”
Or hypothermia or the torn ankle ligaments she suffered on a hike.
She says: “I didn’t give three flying fudges. I was carrying on.”
Alexandra also felt a duty to the other women who fell by the wayside.
While Kerry Katona, 41, and Vicky
Pattison, 33, quit, the remaining three were forced out through injury.
TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson, 54, was pulled from the show after suffering with hypothermia, former Loose Woman Saira Khan, 51, broke her ankle and British World Champion BMX star Shanaze Reade, 33, dislocated her shoulder.
Alexandra says: “I was like, all the other girls that have been here and had to leave from injury – they would be here right now if it wasn’t for their injury. Therefore, I’ve got to do it for them, and I’ve got to do it for every single woman that will watch this show and think they can do it too.”
But Alexandra admits she wouldn’t have made it this far without the remaining men, Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell, 49, Paralympian Aled Davies, 30, broadcaster and 2016 Strictly champion Ore Oduba, 35, and Love Islander Wes Nelson, 23.
She says: “The others looked after me so well because by the point I’d broken my ribs, I was a mess.
“The way they were waiting on me hand and foot. I’ve never seen men act like that. It made me realise I need this kind of man in my life. These men were showing me what real men are.”
Despite their camaraderie, they
The racism I have endured, that’s what makes me angry
FORMER X FACTOR WINNER ALEXANDRA BURKE
were all on their own as they reached the interrogation stage of the course. For hours the contestants are subjected to deafening noises and put in stress positions between grillings by interrogators who want to crack a cover story the celebs must protect. Alexandra was determined not to crack. She says: “There was one point where I refused painkillers because I wanted to remember my story and the co-codamol was making me drowsy. When it had completely worn off, the pain became unbearable and I couldn’t stop crying. And then it got to the point where I had hypothermia so I was shivering the whole time. “They chucked four buckets of icecold water all over me, but I refused to speak. I said, ‘I’m not speaking. You’re getting nothing out of me’.” Fans will have to tune in to Sunday’s final to see whether she goes all the way to claim victory, but one thing is for sure, the experience has had a profound impact on her. Alexandra says: “It was the most life-changing experience to understand what your worth is.”
■ SAS: Who Dares Wins, Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.