Sunderland woman to star in The Island with Bear Grylls

Samantha Day will appear on the hit television show The Island with Bear Grylls, when is back on Easter Monday.

The former Castle View Academy student will join the other contestants to pit their wits against the elements after being left stranded on the island.

The Island with Bear Grylls is returning for a fifth series with the host abandoning ordinary Britons to take care of themselves on uninhabited islands in the Pacific.

This series will see two separate groups of eight left at opposite ends of the remote island, and this time, there’s a twist.

The first group will be wealthy professionals living off an average income of £100,000 a year, while the other group all earn below the UK national average wage.

Samantha, 24, and the other contestants will be armed only with some survival training, the clothes they stand up in, filming equipment, medical supplies, some basic tools and fishing equipment, and enough water for 24 hours.

The Wearside woman, who recently finished her Masters degree in Business Psychology, said she wants to encourage other young people from Sunderland to strive to do something different.

Asked why she decided to take part in The Island, she said: “At first it was to prove that I wasn’t a daft millennial, but I also wanted to see if I was mentally strong enough to get through it.

“I surprised myself actually. I struggle from anxiety, so was worried I might not be mentally strong enough to cope. Now that I’ve done it, I know that I am.”

Before she got to the island Samantha said she was worried about how prepared she was for it and initially she wasn’t impressed with her fellow islanders.

She said: “I do think some of the islanders were quite shocked that I’m well educated because of the way I speak and aspects of my personality, but that doesn’t define me, who I am is who I am.”

Samantha said at first she found the others quite rude and they didn’t bond as a family, they were just strangers trying to survive.

However, she said: “My opinion of them changed the more I got to know them. It changed quite a bit by the time we left.

“The feeling of loneliness I experienced was harder than I thought it would be. Even though I was surrounded by all these people 24/7, they’re not the people you want to be with, so you feel really lonely.

“Missing my family and feeling lonely is what I struggled with most and I wasn’t expecting that.”

The Island with Bear Grylls will premiere on Monday, April 2 at 9pm on Channel 4.