They came up with plans to prevent suicide and tackle climate change. Then on Day 4 of the reality TV challenge came a final twist: contestant Edi, whose husband was a suicide jumper, was told she would get £100,000, only if she survived a series of tasks that would test her psychological resilience.
“It was really important for me to go out on Day 4 with a smile so I could get the chance to see my husband. I wanted him to know I had not lost hope and that I still believed I could make a change. That would have been great to have been able to say I was ready to live out my dream and not be a statistic,” she said.
The final task was for Edi to walk to a set of doors in a church. There were six doors, each 10 metres away. She was to open them one after the other and hand over the £50 bill from the pound stack to a stranger who would then collect it.
Edi had thought that was the end of it – but the strange man would not accept the money. He kept shouting to Edi: “You’re the one who said you were ready to live out your dream. What is your dream?”
Edi said: “At this point, I was totally shocked as so many thoughts were going through my head. I was trying to figure out if it was a prank. I just wanted him to go away. He kept shouting to me: ‘You’re the one who said you were ready to live out your dream.’
“I kept saying: ‘I can’t believe you think I am ready to live out my dream.’ That is when he took my money. I didn’t even know he took the money, as I had thought that would be the end of it.
“We have all worked so hard, so I had to take the money to prove my point. I have never been asked to do something like this before and never thought I would be asked – especially when I am at the highest level.”
She now knows that what happened next was part of the deal. Edi was to be given £100,000, in compensation, if she could not continue. If she completed the series and