Airdrie most cancers survivor Paul Hamilton talks about his experiences on American actuality sequence, Robust as Nails

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There’s a recurring theme when speaking with Airdrie’s Paul Hamilton about his normal outlook on life.

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He’s cussed. He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t again down.

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So when he was eradicated from the American actuality sequence Robust as Nails, it was a tricky tablet to swallow. It occurred over a 12 months in the past in Hamilton, Ont., nevertheless it was solely revealed on Friday when the episode aired. In accordance with the strict commandments of actuality tv, Hamilton needed to maintain his destiny beneath wraps because the sequence performed out.

As followers know, he made all of it the way in which to Episode 7 as a person competitor, a fairly spectacular feat provided that he was among the many oldest contestants competing and can be a most cancers survivor.

He was undone in “additional time,” which had him dealing with Ohio jack-of-all-trades Kenji Ngo in a problem that concerned filling a hibernaculum with logs and rocks. That mentioned, he’ll seem within the last two episodes in crew competitions.

“All of the feelings operating via you, it’s unbelievable,” says Hamilton, who’s now again in Airdrie. “Disappointment, No. 1. Discouraged, No. 2. If I might have had three extra months of coaching, I assure you I might have went to the tip. However, hey, it’s what it’s. I’m not 33 years previous, both. My spouse says I’m too arduous on myself. She thinks I did nice after the whole lot I’ve been via.”

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Collection highlights expert, hardworking women and men in blue-collar professions

On the age of 56, Hamilton was the second-oldest competitor after Wisconsin toolmaker Todd Anderson, who was 58 on the time of the competitors. For its fifth season, Robust as Nails was based mostly in Canada for the primary time and pitted a gaggle of robust Canadians and Individuals towards one another in varied challenges on actual job websites. The thought behind the CBS sequence is to focus on expert, hardworking women and men in blue-collar professions — Season 5 included two firefighters, a contractor, an electrician and an ironworker, amongst others — quite than the starry-eyed fame-seekers that are inclined to populate different actuality sequence.

A Montreal native, Hamilton moved to Calgary within the mid-Nineties. In his on-line bio, his occupation is listed as a upkeep supervisor however he has additionally labored as a mechanic and has typically held a fierce DIY angle all his life with regards to all issues mechanical. If he can repair it, he’ll. If it could construct it, even higher. He additionally restores Coke machines, pinball machines and jukeboxes in his spare time.

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“No. 1, I’m too cussed to surrender,” he says. “No. 2, I’m too low cost to pay individuals to sort things. My spouse at all times says, if she was on a desert island I might be the man to go along with her as a result of I can MacGyver something from something.”

A longtime fan of the sequence, Hamilton put his title in when it was open to Canadian opponents for the primary time. Hamilton was among the many 4 Canadians who made the minimize. A complete of 11 opponents went to Hamilton final summer time to endure a sequence of gruelling particular person and crew competitions — Hamilton was a member of the “Savage Crew” — that examined their expertise, endurance, psychological and bodily power and normal mettle. 

In comparison with the wild globe-trotting adventures of The Wonderful Race opponents, the challenges on Robust as Nails could seem a contact banal by comparability, no less than on paper. However that’s the purpose. The challenges, just like the contestants, are robust, sensible and down-to-earth. Hamilton can attest that the entire actions have been additionally extraordinarily taxing. They included chopping scrap metallic, utilizing heavy equipment to bag soil, assembling a trailer body and looking a home-improvement retailer to seek out dozens of things. Within the seventh episode, contestants needed to construct gabion baskets and fill them with rocks.

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However Hamilton says the hardest problem, each bodily and mentally, came about in an apple orchard in Episode 5. It was apparently not almost as tranquil because it sounds. The 2 groups raced towards one another gathering bushels of apples.

“I do know my cardio sucks,” he says. “I’ve been via all this most cancers therapy and I didn’t have sufficient time to coach.”

Loads of patriotic and private motivation to achieve competitors

Hamilton was identified with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and went via therapy for a 12 months, together with radiation and surgical procedure. He had simply completed therapy and had been cleared by medical doctors when he noticed the decision for Canadian contestants in 2022. He says he will get blood exams each three months and remains to be cancer-free.

He wished to make Canada proud, however he additionally had a extra private motivation to compete within the sequence.

“One of many greatest causes I did this was to indicate those who when you get identified with most cancers, you don’t have to surrender,” he says. “Hold pushing via the whole lot you do and maintain a optimistic angle. I used to be making the nurses snicker whereas I used to be going via my therapy.”

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Hamilton has been a fan of Robust as Nails because it debuted again in the summertime of 2020.

“I used to be on the sofa yelling at individuals and telling them what they have been doing unsuitable,” he says. “However, between you and me, being on the present and being on the sofa are two totally different worlds altogether. A sofa cheerleader is totally totally different than (competing). As quickly as I bought off the boat and noticed the primary problem, I mentioned to myself ‘What the heck am I doing? They have to actually see one thing I don’t.’”

Would he take into account competing in one other actuality sequence?

“In a heartbeat,” he says. “I might try this huge time. Any present … any present apart from Bare and Afraid.”

Paul Hamilton will seem within the last two episodes of Robust as Nails, which air Friday and Sunday on International.

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