AN insurance company manager who survived for four weeks on a desert island has recalled the hunger and the heat - and the elation of catching a crocodile.

Simon Middleton, a Guiseley father-of-three, was one of the contestants on the Channel 4 series The Island, presented by Bear Grylls.

Now safely back home, Simon has revealed that he lost two and a half stone during the island ordeal.

He applied to go on the show to test himself to the maximum.

“I don’t have any special skills and saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test myself. Would I - a man with an office job and three kids - be able to do it? I wanted to make my wife and kids proud.”

Simon shrugged off criticism that he faced on social media over comments he made about women’s abilities to survive on the island.

He seemed to suggest they were the weaker sex, which led to some people on Twitter calling him a “sexist pig”

“I was just trying to keep people upbeat,” he said.

“It has been misinterpreted. I said things with a straight face and maybe some didn’t get my sense of humour. A lot of it was tongue in cheek and I never meant to upset anyone.”

Simon said he respected the women who took part in the survival series.

“I have got a lot of respect for the girls on the show and I still speak to them.”

He said the online sexism row had been “blown out of all proportion”.

“I’m not a sexist pig. I have had this confirmed by women.”

His wife, Laura, “saw the funny side” of some of the comments he had made.

“Sometimes you have just got to laugh it off. People say things on Twitter for effect and to get a rise out of me.”

Other contestants said the hunger was hard to deal with as they struggled to survive on the barest of morsels for days on end.

But Simon said the incessant rain was just as hard to bear.

“The worst bit was the combination of starvation and the rain. I am used to rain but it rained for 20 odd days out of 33 day. It rained for days on end and all you can think about is where your next meal is coming from.

“I started thinking about red and black Fruit Pastilles. You would torture yourself with thoughts of fantastic meals. It was all-consuming. It was the toughest thing I have ever done in my life.”

Simon urged would-be contestants to put their names forward for the next series.

MORE TOP STORIES

“If you want to practice, try sleeping in the garden for a week without a tent,” he joked.

Catching and killing a Cayman crocodile was a high point of life on the island, he said.

“It was terrifying, you could feel the fear. No-one wants to take a life but you are starving and it is food.

“I was scared but I thought that I had to do it. I wanted to make my family proud and Yorkshire proud as a whole. It was as terrifying as it looked.”

Simon say he won’t step on a deserted island ever again.

“It was a bit of a nightmare. I would not do it again but I would recommend it to anyone to do it as an experience. I hope I made my wife and kids proud.

“It was physically and mentally exhausting and the weight loss was ridiculous.”