Denise Welch tackled her demons in a big way recently, revealing on Wednesday's Loose Women that she'd finally confronted a life-long fear of being underwater.
Denise returned to the panel of the ITV lunchtime discussion show for its third episode of the week, joining host Christine Lampard and colleagues Kelly Holmes and Gloria Hunniford.
After crossing live to Gok Wan in Scotland as he got involved with Burns Night festivities, Christine put Geordie star Denise on the spot in the Loose Women studio, by asking her about 'a challenge' she'd faced recently, elaborating: "This was to confront one of your biggest fears and this will resonate with a lot of people - water. You're not a great swimmer, you're fearful of it; tell us about this challenge."
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Denise replied: "I've always been scared of water. My dad couldn't swim; so when other kids were sort of chucking their kids in the pool, my sister and I would look at my dad who was sat on a rock in Disney armbands!"
She added: "I think they didn't instil a fear, but water didn't really play much most of our lives. I'm better than my sister. My sister is even scared of the shower, she gets terrified."
Explaining that her breakthrough moment came as she went on a juice retreat abroad, Denise continued: "On the first day we were taken down to this river and I had seen this on Instagram and thought 'I'll never do that.'
"And you know when you get peer pressure and it wasn't peer pressure in a horrible way, it was people wanting me to confront it. It's not the being in the water, it's the going under. I just drown! I try to hold my nose and it all gets in there and this cacophony of noises comes out."
A clip of Denise jumping into the river then played out on screen as This Morning host Alison could be heard cheering her on in the background, shouting: "Yes Denise! That's amazing Denise!" Denise reacted: "She was really proud of me and I was glad I did it...I wouldn't want to do it again!"
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