Chris McCausland lost his sight completely by the age of 22 due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, a rare disease which slowly diminishes the retina’s function

Strictly Come Dancing finalist Chris McCausland will be taking to the dancefloor one last time this evening as he competes for the glitterball alongside four other celebrities.

The 47-year-old comedian and actor and professional dancer Dianne Buswell have charmed viewers on the TV show and have never once faced the dance-off. Despite being a novice dancer, Chris has impressed the public as well as the judges – also due to the fact that he lost his sight about 25 years ago.

At the age of 22, Chris was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition which affects the light sensitive cells in the retina at the back of your eyes. This rare disease slowly diminishes the retina’s function, leading to a gradual lost of sight.

Chris has never been in the Strictly dance-off ( 
Image:
PA)
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) says the first symptom you will notice is that you don’t see as well as other people without a sight condition in dim light, for example outside at dusk, or at night – which is commonly known as “night blindness”. While people without a sight condition can usually fully adapt to dim light in 15 to 30 minutes, those with RP find that it takes them much longer to adapt, or it doesn’t happen at all.

As RP progresses, you will start having problems seeing things in your peripheral vision, leaving a central narrow field of vision known as having “tunnel vision”. Since RP is a progressive condition, it means your vision will continue to get worse over the years.

Chris, who is now blind as he lost his sight completely by the age of 22, previously spoke about his condition to the i newspaper as he revealed: “My grandmother had it, and my mum. Basically, I’d been going blind very slowly since I was born, and so didn’t even really notice it happening. Like the frog in the pan of boiling water.”

He went on to describe his experience of blindness, saying: “They say that when you lose your sight, your hearing gets better. It doesn’t. But you do pay more attention to it. So when you’re sat at a beach resort, and you’re hot, and you can’t see what’s around you, then you just end up concentrating on how hot you actually are. I suffer more for it.”

Earlier this week, Chris said he was feeling “worn down” ahead of the Strictly final. In an honest admission, Chris confessed that he hadn’t recovered from the weekend and was struggling with his emotions. He explained that he felt “worn down” and “fell apart a bit” on Saturday.

Speaking on It Takes Two on Wednesday, he said: “I haven’t really truly recovered. It’s been an emotional few days this week for me. I feel worn down. My resilience has been worn down. I kind of fell apart a bit on Saturday, and I haven’t fully recovered, and then we’ve been training this week, and I’ve had a few wobbles. A few emotional wobbles. It’s incredible but I’m still feeling quite emotional.”

After they went through, Dianne and Chris took to social media to issue a joint statement. Dianne wrote: “We did it partner Strictly 2024 FINALISTS!!! You deserve this so much. Thank you for your friendship, kindness, and trust, doing this with you has been one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. We promise to do what we do every week in the final and that is try our very best and enjoy the moment because it’s such a special one.”

At the time, Chris also admitted that he was an “emotional wreck” and felt “overwhelmed”. He explained: “We learned the steps, and we did quite well. I can’t help but get emotional when I look at your face during that because you just look like you’re enjoying it so much. I’ll be honest, I got a bit emotional before.

“I’m weak at the minute, I’m emotionally weak. It doesn’t take much to set me off. We did the waltz before and the way it works on Saturday, we’re going to do our Couple’s Choice, then we’ll do our Show Dance. Then we’ll do the waltz. We rehearsed the waltz, and I realised that this is going to be the last dance that we do, and I imagined it all being over on Saturday and it being the last time we dance on the show and it upset me.” Chris will be competing alongside Sarah Hadland, Tasha Ghouri, and JB Gill this evening.