TV travel show contestant eyes wheelchair prize for mum

Charlotte Williams, 25, from Swansea, is one of six young people in the new Channel 4 show, Worlds Apart, who have never travelled alone before

A woman taking part in a travel challenge with a £50,000 prize said if she wins she will spend the money on an electric wheelchair for her mother who has fibromyalgia and scoliosis.

Charlotte Williams, 25, from Swansea, is one of six young people in the Channel 4 show, Worlds Apart, who have never travelled alone before.

They are paired with six pensioners who thought they would never travel again and together they solve clues to travel across Japan.

"When my family are happy, I'm happy," Charlotte said, although she added she would keep a little aside to buy "a load of Persian cats" which she plans to name after the Gavin and Stacey cast.

She said her mother had a tough year and had "been in the wars".

"She has fibromyalgia, scoliosis and spina bifida, which is a curvature of the spine, so she does struggle, so I went, 'if I win, I want to get an electric wheelchair and make her life as best as possible.'"

But if she wins the prize, Charlotte will also be "a little bit selfish" by buying the cats.

"I want to walk down the hill with a trail of cats behind me. That is my goal in life," she told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales.

Charlotte, who works on the checkout in Asda, had never travelled alone before Worlds Apart and had only been to Switzerland to the see the Eurovision song contest and on a four-day trip to Paris with her brother.

"I'm always scrolling on Instagram and I saw this post looking for people aged 18 to 25," she said of her decision to apply for the show.

Charlotte said Colin, pictured left, was full of energy and "brilliant"

She had a "really big shock" when she found out she would be travelling with 73-year-old Colin and was worried what he might think of her.

"I'm so full on, and I just chat at people... but he gave me as good as he got," she said, laughing.

"He was so full of energy. He was brilliant," she added. "Within 30 seconds I knew everything about him."

She admitted that Japan had not previously been on her radar.

"It's so chaotic. So vibrant. So colourful," she said. "It was like a Disney World."

She described the country as "so different to Wales", adding it was "unbelievable".

"I'm such a home bird. So when I found out it was Tokyo on a 15-hour flight away... I was like, 'Oh my god, my poor family. I'm going to miss them so much'."

She found it hard being far away from family during the first week, crying on the phone, despite the fact she was having "the best time ever".

But as the competition progressed she grew more and more competitive, she said, adding she was "in the zone".

Charlotte said she speaks with Colin "all the time", and that the pair have been in contact almost every day since the travelling together.