JJ CHALMERS
Paralympics presenter JJ Chalmers tells Guy Kelly how he and other veterans are coming to terms with Afghanistan’s fall
For the past decade, JJ Chalmers has lived by a mantra: “I should make the best of any situation I’m in, because I could so easily have not had it.” It’s something that’s served him well ever since the summer of 2011 when, aged 24, he was out on foot patrol eight weeks into a six-month tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, with the Royal Marines, when one of his colleagues stepped on an improvised explosive device.
Two of his friends died in the blast. Chalmers was airlifted to hospital to have 30 operations, some lasting more than 12 hours. The explosion had crushed an eye socket, burst his eardrums, destroyed his right elbow, blown off two fingers, and left him with burns all over.
In the years afterwards, as he rebuilt his body and resolve, Chalmers’s mantra led him to win three medals and work as a spokesman at the Invictus Games in 2014, becoming firm friends with the games’ organiser, Prince Harry.
He became a husband to Kornelia and father twice. He competed in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing, and this summer became the first disabled presenter of the BBC’S Olympics coverage. He is co-anchoring this year’s Paralympic Games for Channel 4, which begin this week.
In person and on screen, you couldn’t wish for a sunnier, more affable presence. Yet after a week in which all veterans of Afghanistan have been confronted by sadness, even Chalmers has been having low moments. “It has been personally tough, because what we’re seeing is utterly heartbreaking. It’s been very tricky to continue with life when you see something which so defines you falling apart,” he says. “The number one concern is the Afghan people, of course, but there are a lot of [veterans] suffering in this country, who like me are invested in that country, because the mental health battles they’ve had are built on making some semblance of the good we did. And we did – we did.”
Over the last week, since Kabul fell to the Taliban, Afghanistan veterans from all walks of life have spoken movingly about seeing their work undone.
“I’ve never felt our community stronger than right now. I’ve got no shortage of people calling me up to check if I’m OK,” Chalmers, now 34, says. “The question of ‘Was it all worth it?’ is bandied around a lot, but most guys know they did what they could. And I can go to bed at night knowing that while I was in Afghanistan, the small part I was charged with keeping safe was better for it, and that girls were going to school. We’d hoped that would continue, but that probably won’t be the case.”
Chalmers is, at least, grateful for the distraction of his work. A fortnight ago, he finished his dream presenting job, hosting Tokyo 2020 for the BBC (albeit from Salford). It was, he says, “absolutely amazing”, and he’s still not quite over the fact that he landed the gig on his 10th “bangiversary” – the day of his being blown up.
“This is the absolutely wild thing. If someone had appeared, like The Ghost of Christmas Future at the end of that hospital bed, and said ‘Listen, don’t worry, just get through it, you’re going to present the Olympics one day…’, I’d have been like, ‘Er, what?’”
For the Paralympics, he is flying to Tokyo. It won’t be the riskiest trip he’s done in his life, obviously, but it still carries some jeopardy.
“You’ve just got to not let your guard down, which is where it’s similar to [military tours] – because our health is at stake and I’ve used my luck up. So I’ll be cautious, but the show must go on.”
When the pandemic started, the first thing Chalmers did was text his old surgeon to ask whether he was at greater risk than most from Covid-19. His lungs weren’t damaged in the Afghan blast, but the rest of his body was battered.
“His answer was a bit of both: that, going by the scientific understanding we have, I should be fine, but also that people like me are scientific anomalies, having survived the unsurvivable.”
Chalmers wasn’t put in a higher-risk group, but he knows from friends in the disabled community that there remains a profound fear of the virus – especially as society opens up, increasing the risk of transmission.
“It’s a big thing. When we talk about Freedom Day, for the disabled community in particular, and the elderly and vulnerable, it’s the opposite of freedom. Lockdown starts again in some regard,” he says.
“The pandemic has shown a lot of people what it’s like to feel isolated and not able to leave their home, and people should realise that’s how a lot of disabled people feel all the time.”
Part of the mission of the Paralympics is to show how people with disabilities can do extraordinary things when given the opportunities.
Chalmers believes London 2012 was “a big step forward, but it would be wrong to say we fixed anything. When we look at why people are disabled, much of it comes from wider society.
“Is it acceptable that businesses don’t have disabled access? A lot of people think it’s not their problem, but anybody can become disabled. We’re lagging behind on disability, but we’re still a lot further along than we were 10 years ago.”
Chalmers’s blossoming TV career – forthcoming non-sporting projects include Gardeners’ World, a history series for Channel 5, and a Cbeebies bedtime story – started entirely accidentally, when his relaxed and personable manner with a microphone was noticed by organisers of the Invictus Games. One was his pal Prince Harry, who remains heavily involved in the veterans’ games.
“I’d say with the Netflix documentary that’s coming out about Invictus, more than ever, he’s using his platform and his connections to bring the games to a wider audience,” Chalmers says. “I don’t think we’d have a Netflix deal if it wasn’t for him, it’s as simple as that.”
Chalmers’s children are a couple of years older than Harry’s, so they text about fatherhood. “He actually sent me a copy of Meghan’s book for Father’s Day, which was lovely. The kids loved it.”
Maybe Chalmers will appear in Harry’s own memoir, which is due out next year? “Gosh, I forgot about that, I meant to message him. Yeah, maybe I’ll get a cameo appearance and find out just how good friends we really are… I mean, he’d be in my book, in fairness.”
Chalmers’s book will be worth reading one day. He’d love to become a household name, he says, presenting myriad different shows, and intends to become a fixture on Olympics coverage for years to come.
“I picked a big dream and I worked my a--- off. To Lance Corporal Chalmers lying in that hospital bed, this makes no sense, but when I look at the last five years, this is the natural progression of my career. I just hope it’s not the last one.”
The book Chalmers read on his Cbeebies Bedtime Stories slot, which will air this month, was James Catchpole’s What Happened To You?, about a child with a disability.
It’s a question Chalmers has been asked incessantly by strangers over the last decade – what happened to you? – and while it’s a long answer, he doesn’t tire of it, and instead just refers to his mantra.
What happened to him is extraordinary – but what he’s done since is even more remarkable.
Watch the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games from tomorrow on Channel 4 (paralympics.channel4.com)