{"id":97679,"date":"2025-08-26T17:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97679\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:54:10","slug":"peru-two-michaella-mccollum-finishes-military-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97679\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Peru Two’ Michaella McCollum finishes military course"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Lawrence<\/p>\n

BBC News NI<\/p>\n

\"PetePete Dadds\/Channel4<\/p>\n

Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, said the experience was one of the “best things” she’s ever done<\/p>\n

A woman from County Tyrone who was sent to prison for drug smuggling in South America has become one of three recruits to complete the latest series of Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.<\/p>\n

Contestants in the military-style show are faced with gruelling physical and psychological tests that are supposed to mimic special forces training.<\/p>\n

Michaella McCollum, alongside former X Factor contestant Lucy Spraggan and former footballer Troy Deeney, passed the selection course in Wales<\/a> as the seventh series wrapped up on Monday.<\/p>\n

After being told of their success, the trio agreed to get matching tattoos as a reminder of their achievement.<\/p>\n

\"ChannelChannel 4<\/p>\n

Lucy Spraggan, Troy Deeney and Michaella McCollum came out on top on Monday night’s episode<\/p>\n

McCollum, who became known as one of the ‘Peru Two’ <\/a>after being caught smuggling 11kg of cocaine out of Lima Airport in 2013, said throughout her life she had made “so many mistakes”, allowing her to stay within her comfort zone.<\/p>\n

“I think that this is something so challenging and something I never thought that I could possibly do,” the 31-year-old said.<\/p>\n

“Learning that I’m capable of doing that would feel quite amazing.”<\/p>\n

‘There’s more to me than football’<\/p>\n

Former striker and Watford captain Deeney said the experience has taught him that he can be proud of himself.<\/p>\n

“I’m hoping to be able to come through and be proud of myself. I put myself up for this, I did the work for it,” he added.<\/p>\n

“I’m getting bored of being Troy the footballer, because there’s a lot more of me than that.”<\/p>\n

\"PetePete Dadds | Channel 4<\/p>\n

Fourteen recruits were part of the latest series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, which filmed in Wales<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her time on the show Spraggan, who had previously spoken out about her trauma after she was raped while filming the X Factor in 2012<\/a>, said <\/p>\n

“Everything that has happened in my life had to happen for me to be here exactly where I am right now,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing I’d trade in this world to not be exactly where I am right now.”<\/p>\n

Who is Michaella McCollum?<\/p>\n

\"PeruvianPeruvian National Police via Reuters<\/p>\n

McCollum (left) and Melissa Reid were imprisoned in South America for drug smuggling<\/p>\n

While being interrogated by instructors on Monday’s episode, McCollum revealed she shared a small cell with seven other inmates, with no access to showers or drinking water.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I could never show emotion when I was in there. I couldn’t cry, I had to be really strong,” she said.<\/p>\n

The mother-of-two said her time in the maximum security prison changed her as a person.<\/p>\n

She said she had a lot of fears entering the show, suffering from anxiety and learning how to swim, challenging her both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to learn how to become uncomfortable,” she told the instructors.<\/p>\n

In episode two, the 31-year-old admitted to becoming addicted to drugs at 16, later booking a one-way ticket to Ibiza where she met a man who asked her to travel to Barcelona to pick up a package.<\/p>\n

“I was getting deeper and deeper into this trap,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Then they put me on a flight to Peru in South America and I knew it was wrong and I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I just felt so scared like if I didn’t do it, what would they do to me? Or would they do anything to my family?”<\/p>\n

\"ChannelChannel 4<\/p>\n

McCollum was interrogated as part of the final episode of Celebrity SAS<\/p>\n

After returning home, McCollum tried to live a normal life, but said it was a “circus, a frenzy”. <\/p>\n

“That was really hard because I knew I messed up but constantly being reminded of that and how I’m such an awful person.. obviously I knew I did something bad but the media just made it harder,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Lawrence BBC News NI Pete Dadds\/Channel4 Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, said the experience was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-97679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}