After six gruelling weeks, Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins has come to an end, with the season 7 winners revealed.
Following one last challenge, Chief Instructor Rudy Reyes, who took over from Ant Middleton on the series, confirmed that Paige Zima and Shylla Duhaney had passed the selection process.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com following their win, Paige and Shylla revealed moments that didn’t make it on screen, as they both admitted to suffering from a lack of sleep.
“What you don’t see so much of is that it’s 24/7,” Paige explained. “I think people don’t get that.
“Also the sleep deprivation – you’re up every single night to do a night watch, putting on your wet boots and wet clothes to go and stand on a tower, and the less people that are in, the less sleep you’re getting because your shifts are longer as well.”
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“The sleep is horrific and you’re on edge all the time so even when you’re going to a location or even when you’ve got like 10 minutes in your accommodation, you’re still awake because you need to be alert 24/7,” she added.
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Agreeing, Shylla said: “We’re just on edge every minute of the day and even the stuff they show, it’s a lot longer [in real life]. It’s crazy and it’s hard to properly explain to people who haven’t lived it because so much goes on.
“Your body is just so knackered that you can’t switch off. The slightest noise – you can hear the DS in the background and they’ll just be shouting for the sake of it – and then you’re on edge, like they’ve called your name or they’re about to come out. There’s just no time off.”
As well as being heavily sleep-deprived, Paige says there were times when they struggled with the weather conditions.
She continued: “Another thing that people didn’t see from the Black Hawk challenge is that we all had soaked our kits, and it was freezing cold in the night-time.
“We were absolutely freezing in the night, to the point where you were literally curled up in a ball with just your windbreaker on, trying to get warm because everything was soaking.”
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