Matt Taylor has proved he’s one of the toughest people in Britain by surviving channel Five’s Unbreakable TV series.
The 24-year-old fitness instructor, from Tewkesbury, was one of only three contestants not to be broken by the hardest challenges from across the world.
The last programme in the eight-week series saw rugby player Matt, skier Angus and iron man Frazer survive gruelling activities in South Africa.
The country’s elite combat force, made up off ex-special forces soldiers, pushed them to the limit.
It was too much for two of the other remaining contestants, ex-boxer Dave and musician Barnaby, who had to admit they were broken.
Matt, who works as an instructor at Fitness First in Cheltenham, coped with being buried alive and carrying backpacks, rifles and heavy weights in burning heat.
He had to crawl on his hands and knees with only his boxer shorts on and had a stinging antiseptic liquid put straight on to his cuts and blisters.
If that wasn’t enough, he then had to spend a night in the open in temperatures just above freezing.
But despite being deprived of food and sleep and being verbally abused by the combat force, he refused to crack.
Viewers saw him raise his arms aloft and shout “Yes!” as he was officially declared unbreakable.
Before South Africa, Matt’s challenges included wrestling with crocodiles in Florida, fighting against Zula warriors in Natal and being trained by the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara desert.
He also got through being trained by the Royal Navy, the US Navy Seals, the Norwegian Army in an arctic wasteland and trekking through the South American jungle.
He told the Echo he was proud to have completed the eight weeks without being broken.
He said: “At the time, it was really horrible but when you look back and you could say you got through stuff like that, there’s a really big sense of achievement.”
Matt Taylor from Channel 5 programme Unbreakable has spoken of his joy at surviving the contest
