Nicky Campbell: ‘My faithful friends saved me’
writer Broadcaster, radio show host and two best pals Nicky Campbell, chats about the he’ll always be grateful for
It’s always lovely to discover that the well-known person you’re chatting to is just as nice off screen as they are on it. Nicky Campbell is one such person. The chap we see on ITV’s Long Lost Family really is just as sensitive, sympathetic and empathic when the cameras have stopped rolling. Plus, he’s passionate about dogs – which makes him a top-dog in our book!
Talking of dogs and books, Nicky has just written a lovely memoir called, One of The Family – why a Dog called Maxwell Changed My Life in which his adoration for his faithful 12-year-old Labrador – and also his childhood dog, Candy – shines through. But it’s more than that, actually. He credits these two four-legged chums as best friends who have seen him through some of the darkest days of his life. “I was adopted when I was four days old and although I couldn’t have asked for better adoptive parents – in fact, being loved and brought up by them was like winning the childhood lottery – I always felt like an outsider,” Nicky tells us.
“Candy came to us when I was still very small and, being a dog, he was also adopted and an outsider. We
‘Dogs seem to know, feel and instinctively empathise with their owners’
immediately formed a very close bond. In fact, when I was small, I thought I was a dog; I’d crawl around on all-fours and want to eat from a bowl on the floor!
“We were the dynamic duo – and he was my brother, my life coach and role model. I became a real-life wolf boy, the Mowgli of Midlothian. Candy’s unconditional love and the fact that he was always there and seemed to know what I was thinking was such a comfort to me.”
When Nicky was 11 years old, Candy died and understandably, he was devastated. “The despair that hit me was, and is still, like nothing else I’ve ever known,” Nicky reveals. “Candy was never coming home. I was never going
to see him again. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t hear. I’d never even considered the possibility that Candy would die. He had always been there and I thought he always would.”
On reaching his teens Nicky, like many boys of his age, became distracted by music, his mates and girls. He did well academically and after leaving school, went to university in Aberdeen. Within a few years of graduating, Nicky was DJ-ing at Capital Radio in London at the beginning of a glittering
broadcasting career. Life was good, yet he still felt like an outsider and wanted to learn where he had come from. So he decided to try to trace his birth mother.
“Although this proved to be easier than he anticipated, when he actually met her it was almost as if she was a stranger. This was to have a delayed effect on him, emotionally.
In 1997, Nicky married journalist Christina Ritchie and they went on to have four daughters – now in their teens and early 20s. Then on July 4, 2008 – 35 years to the very day that Candy had passed away – eight-week-old puppy Maxwell came into his life.
“Getting Maxwell was my wife’s idea,” says Nicky. “She knew it was the right time for the dog we had always promised ourselves but been too busy for. And she was right. I needed that unfathomable special extra dimension in my life more than ever.
“As I snuffled Maxwell, as dogs do when they’re happy to see you, we bonded immediately. Our instant connection was extraordinary – something suddenly made perfect sense to both of us. His language was my first language from before I could even walk, let alone talk, from before anyone was able to explain to me that I wasn’t actually a dog and Candy wasn’t my real brother.”
Maxwell was a tower of strength when Nicky (59) suffered a breakdown and then was diagnosed with bipolar disorder several years ago. What does he think it is about dogs that is so incredibly comforting? Why are they regarded as man’s – and indeed woman’s – best friend?
“They seem to know, feel and instinctively empathise with their owners,” he replies. “You don’t have to explain anything to them. This is very good for your mental health. With your closest friends and family, you feel compelled to explain why you’re feeling the way you do. You don’t always want to do that, though. Quite often, you just want to get through it and get over it.
“With a dog, you can just be together in the moment. It’s a truly magical connection.
“I will never forget Candy and how much he helped me, and I owe so much to Maxwell, my miracle. Our relationship has been one of total trust and understanding and when we’re alone together in enhanced solitude the feeling of peace he brings, the golden companionship he gives me, is indescribable.”
■ One of the Family – Why A Dog Called Maxwell Changed My Life, by Nicky Campbell, is out now, published by Hodder & Stoughton, rrp £20