Chris McCausland reveals why he’s never used a white cane to get around
Chris McCausland has opened up about why he doesn’t use a white cane to help him navigate the world while blind.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, who won the dancing competition in 2024 alongside professional dance partner Dianne Buswell, spoke candidly about how he felt "shame" when he was losing his sight completely in his early 20s.
McCausland, 47, recalled a dark period of his life after he was forced to give up working as a software developer because his sight was disappearing. He was born with a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which caused his eyesight to start deteriorating shortly after he was born and gradually declined altogether.
"I was a bit off the rails. I was unemployed. I was in denial. I wouldn’t use a stick so I’d struggle, which got you into more trouble than just accepting that you’re blind," the comedian told The Times. "In your early 20s, you just want to be normal. There’s a lot of shame involved. I was probably a bit reckless, a bit self-destructive."
He still doesn’t use a cane because he "never really had the confidence", McCausland said. "I think, because I shunned the idea for so long."
His mother and younger sister also have the condition. McCausland’s mother slowly lost her eyesight as he was growing up, and his sister, who is seven years younger than McCausland, is losing her sight now, but more slowly than he did.
He also recalled how difficult it was to come to terms with losing his eyesight, particularly right before he lost it completely. "That period of having a little bit of sight before you go what you’d call completely blind is far harder than being blind," he told the publication.
McCausland became the first blind contestant to take part in Strictly, and went on to become the first blind person to win it. He previously said he was "terrified" about the idea of going on the show.
He told the Guardian that he overcame the fear because he felt he needed to represent "people who are blind, people with a disability and people who are underrepresented".
"When you weigh that up, and you stop thinking about yourself so much, and the fact that you’re s***ting your pants, there becomes more benefit than risk," he added.
Watch: Strictly finalists Chris McCausland and Tasha Ghouri talk challenging expectations of disability
Speaking to The Times, McCausland said he had initially turned down requests to be on Strictly twice because he feared it would hurt his comedy career if his dancing turned out to be a "disaster".
However, he later came round to the idea when he realised he could bring positive representation of his disability to the show. "Making people forget about disability is often more powerful than just reminding them all the time," McCausland said.
Read more about disability and health:
I was dragged out of a disabled toilet as my illness isn't visible (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)
Blindness from some inherited eye diseases may be caused by gut bacteria – study (PA Media, 2-min read)
North-east woman left 'more and more isolated' by common eye condition (AberdeenLive, 4-min read)
