Mary Byrne faces her fears

There was loud praise when X-Factor singer Mary Byrne faced her fears of heights on Celebrity Operation Transformation and abseiled down the side of a tall building in Dublin to raise money for the children’s charity Make-A-Wish. But behind the scenes it was a different story.

“I was standing on that building for a half an hour holding onto the bars, crying my heart out,” she says.

Then she remembered why she was there in the first place and the cold terror receded.