I realised the world doesn't end if I say no

RADIO AND TV PRESENTER VICK HOPE TALKS TO LAUREN TAYLOR ABOUT HOW SHE GOT BACK TO NATURE, FOUND BALANCE AND LEARNED TO SEE EMOTION AS A STRENGTH

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BROADCASTER Vick Hope learned the hard way to have some balance. In the early days of her radio career she says she probably experienced burnout.

"I was basically not sleeping enough, not eating well, drinking probably too much," says the 35-year-old. "I was 27 so there was no notion of balance at all."

Newcastle-born Vick who now co-hosts the BBC Radio 1 drivetime show Going Home with Vick, Katie and Jamie, along with Katie Thistleton and Jamie Laing, and joined Countryfile as a new presenter in March did "every job under the sun" while she was trying to make a name for herself.

"I didn't know the word 'no'. I think in 2018, I took three days off - including weekends the whole year. I was getting up at 4am every day [for the Capital Breakfast show, alongside Roman Kemp].

"I got to a point where I hadn't seen my family for so long.

"It was a matter of course that I cancelled family holidays, going up to Newcastle, missed weddings... because I had to work all the time," says Vick, who is married to DJ Calvin Harris.

"You feel like, if you stop, the wheels are going to come off. But the truth is, if you keep going, the wheels will come off anyway."

The overwhelm resulted in physical symptoms too. "I remember collapsing. I was with my mum and I was like, wow, I don't think I can move. I don't know what's wrong with me. She was like, you've exhausted yourself. She asked, 'What are you chasing?'

"It needed to get to that for me to realise it had gone too far."