AN intrepid husband and wife team from Burnley will make their TV debut next weekend when they will be seen white water-rafting through the Grand Canyon.

Ann and Ian Waddington, of Higher Reedley Road, accepted and completed their challenge as of one of the many unusual and stomach-churning stunts performed on Davina McCall's ITV programme Don't Try This At Home.

The couple travelled to Colorado last September but footage of how they battled through seven rapids in their raft will be broadcast for the first time on Saturday, along with a studio chat with Davina McCall recorded in November.

Ann, who works in Blackburn, decided she wanted to do something adventurous after watching earlier episodes of the programme.

She said: "I kept going into work and saying I would like to do something like that and at the beginning of last year a work colleague and I wrote in for a laugh, never thinking I would get picked.

"My husband knew about it two days before they turned up at home to surprise me and he was laughing until Davina turned to him and told him he was going to be doing it as well.

"They gave me three differently coloured envelopes and I just chose the blue one. I have no idea what was in the other ones.

"I have never done anything like that before and it was the first time flying abroad for my husband - it was all just a new experience. "You are just so happy about it and the adrenaline's rushing. You enjoy every minute of it."

Ann and Ian travelled to America with two other couples who had also been chosen to complete a challenge.

They practised sailing in a dinghy and were shown the safety aspects of the challenge before being thrown in the deep end - but not before they added their own twist to the show.

Ann said: "We told Davina we were only going to do it if she would come with us so she had to do it too.

"It was quite calm where we got into the dinghy but we couldn't see round the corner and after that you were stuck there.

"The course was 15-miles long but in between the rapids it was quite calm and you had to start bailing the water back out."

She added: "It's more nerve-racking now that it's coming on the television than it was doing it because everyone has been saying they are going to watch it and video it.

"We haven't seen it ourselves yet but it was fantastic.

"Anyone can come up with anything now and I will do it."

The couple will appear on ITV's Don't Try This At Home at 6pm on Saturday, February 12.

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