Cavendish dental nurse set to star on TV show Treasure Island with Bear Grylls

Cavendish mum-of-two Emily Webster is appearing on the reality television show Treasure Island with survival instructor Bear Grylls on Sunday.

The 30-year-old dental nurse is among a line-up of 12 contestants taking part in the show which charts the group’s adventures marooned on a remote tropical island in the Pacific Ocean for 35 days.

This time they look for treasure of £100,000, keeping their share of any money they find. The last episode will be shown on October 6.

Emily said she had the idea to go on the show after watching the celebrity version.

“At the end, Bear asked if anybody wanted to do the show themselves because they were taking applications. I said to my husband that I was going, and he made a bit of a joke of it, which just made me want to do it even more.”

Emily said her life revolves around her husband and two children. “I just thought the idea of being stuck on a desert island and only worrying about me was really appealing and I thought I could do it.”

Learning survival techniques from Bear was the first thing she had to do when arriving on the island. “The main bit of advice he gave us was to really think about everything we needed for survival, so a camp, a water source and, of course, a fire,” said Emily.

But as someone who doesn’t like being out in nature, Emily said: “All I was worried about was if I was going to get my hair wet. How stupid is that? I’m a home bird. I like having all my creature comforts about me. I’m a pampered princess.

“But, at the end of the day, I’ve given birth to two children so I figured I could just do anything if I set my mind to it,” she said.

“What’s really weird is I think I went into autopilot because I wasn’t really scared of anything.”

Emily admits the hunger never affected her on the island, as she doesn’t eat sugar at home and likes whole foods. But her main issue was feeling clean during the 35-day ordeal, and dealing with itchy bites from sand flies.

She says finding money was a big motivator on the show, but thought she had made a bad mistake by deciding not to let others know. “Keeping quiet truly backfired on me,” she said.

Treasure Island with Bear Grylls starts tomorrow (Sunday) at 9pm on Channel 4.