Martin Roberts has revealed he was in tears the first time he had to strip off for The Real Full Monty.
The Homes Under the Hammer presenter is set to appear on the lineup for this year's edition of the ITV show where 12 celebrities bare all to raise awareness for cancer research.
The Warrington TV personality participated in memory of his best friend, David Hughes, who died after a battle with bowel cancer aged 54.
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Martin told the ECHO how David ignored symptoms he was ill and died two years after his initial diagnosis.
He said: "His wife is convinced that if he'd have gone to the doctors sooner and been diagnosed earlier he would have given himself a bit more of a fighting chance.
"I saw the pain that his family went through and I felt the pain that I went through from losing someone so close to me."
Martin describes the show as the most "important" he has ever appeared on - and urged people displaying symptoms to get themselves checked out as soon as possible.
The 58-year-old added: "If one person is watching and they think to go to the doctor because something is not quite right then what price can you put on that in terms of a TV show."
However, the property expert revealed how the idea of stripping off in front of a group of people was initially "frightening" as he has always suffered with extreme body confidence issues.
He said: "I was really badly bullied at school for being fat and I was fat when I was younger.
He continued: "Even though I lost a lot of weight later on in life, I don't think you ever get over that sense of getting laughed at and getting made fun of.
"I've never even taken a top off to get my picture taken so the idea of getting completely stripped off was just so frightening."
Martin said the bullying started in high school and reached its dark peak during the final day of term.
He explained: "The word went out that the main, bad bullies were gonna tie me up to a sunken tennis court and dangle me naked by my arms.
"When I knew this was set to happen, I ran down through the labs where you weren't allowed to go and managed to make it out of the school grounds.
"I looked back and I could see a pyramid of people chasing after me. It felt like the whole school racing after me."
Martin was eventually cornered in an alleyway by one of the bullies - and only escaped because he suffered a severe asthma attack.
He explained: "I think he thought I was dying, which I effectively was. He then got freaked out and ran away to get someone else.
"They never came back so I consider that I had a lucky escape."
The personality has since set up the Martin Roberts Foundation to help with children's safeguarding issues such as this, but he says the trauma of the event has stuck with him 40 years later.
The psychological impact culminated during an emotional moment when Martin had to strip off for the first photo-shoot, which he said left him in tears.
He said: "For me that was the worst day by far.
"I just thought I've got to rise above my own feelings about fearing doing this programme for the sake of Dave and to stop other people going through what I've gone through and what Dave's family have gone through."
Martin also took comfort from the support of the other participants such as Colin Jackson, Teddy Soares and Duncan James - and is proud of how he overcome his issues to perform the routine in front of 2,000 people at the Blackpool Empress.
The BBC host believes stripping off in front of such a large audience has been a "positive step" in getting over his body confidence issues and he hopes his inspiring story can act as a message to silence bullies.
He said: "It's definitely helped. As with all these things, you need to replace images with other ones don't you.
"If I can replace the image of that little boy running away from that pyramid with a man standing on stage throwing his hat off then that's a really positive mental thing that I can do.
"When I threw off the thong, perhaps I was thinking 'stuff you lot'"
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