Race Across the World's Betty shares challenges of health condition on show
Race Across the World season 4 continued tonight (May 22) with the penultimate leg of the journey, and one contestant opened up about their health condition and how the show has helped them look at it differently.
The show's seventh checkpoint was Jakarta, capital of Indonesia. Although the contestants were already in the country, they were at the other end of it, and on a separate island as well.
Alfie and Owen had a major lead start, which put Owen in a good mood as it was his 21st birthday, but spirits were soon dampened as their early-morning fishing job ran straight into an 18-hour bus ride.
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Two teams, Betty and James and Stephen and Viv, took a very leaky minibus together, while Eugenie and Isabel splashed out on some taxis. They all experienced Indonesia's unreliable public transport, as a tyre blew on Betty and James' second bus, while Eugenie and Isabel's later taxi had an issue with a driver who lost his keys.
While doing one of their multiple jobs in the episode, James admitted to feeling mentally checked out due to lack of sleep, which prompted Betty to talk to her brother for this first time about her condition and how coming this far in the competition had inspired her to not want to give up.
Speaking in a confessional, Betty explained that at 16 years old, she was told she has MRKH Syndrome (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser), and that she has no womb and only one kidney.
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"I think as a young woman you're kind of told, you're going to marry, you're gonna have a family, and when that's taken away from you, it puts doubts in your mind, your purpose as a person," she said.
She admitted to James that it was tough to hear him say his mantra of "everything happens for a reason" because she struggled with having a bad thing happen to her that she had no control over.
James tearfully said that he was unaware how much it had affected her, but he now understands how strong she is, while Betty said that she wants to focus on what her body can do rather than what it can't.
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Back to the race, Alfie and Owen were first to the checkpoint, but didn't realise that Eugenie and Isabel had made the journey 23 hours faster than them, and were only 12 minutes behind.
Betty and Hames arrived the next day, while Stephen and Viv trailed very far behind.
With the final next week, it's looking like a two-horse race, but who will win?
Race Across the World concludes next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One, and can be streamed on iPlayer. A fifth season has been confirmed.
Information and support regarding MRKH can be found at the NHS Imperial College website.
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