RACE Across the World viewers were left ‘broken’ as contestant Aflie was overwhelmed with emotion while reflecting on the loss of his mother when he was just five years old.
The fourth series of the hit BBC travel show is back with five teams that are given strict rules while travelling across Eastern Asia for a chance to win a life-changing £20,000 cash prize.
In episode four, the determined teams entered Southeast Asia, starting their third leg from the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
The groups were tasked with racing over 2,000km through Vietnam and into the Kingdom of Cambodia to reach Phnom Penh.
However, as fans of Race Across the World enjoyed the teams competing against each other they couldn’t help but have their heartstrings tugged by Alfie’s incredible story.
During the latest instalment, Alfie was reduced to tears as he candidly opened up about losing his mum to cancer when he was just five years old.
As Alfie and his best pal Owen travelled through Hoi An in Vietnam and reached the Old Town and its floating lanterns, Alfie was taken aback by the beautiful scenes.
In the travel competition, Alfie and Owen are up against two mother-daughter duos, Eugenie and Isabel and Brydie and Sharon, as well as married couple Stephen and Viv and brother-sister pair Betty and James.
While taking in the picturesque scenery, Alfie asked the camera crew if he could take a minute to himself before sharing that his family has set off a lantern every year with a message attached since his mum sadly passed.
Speaking about releasing a lantern, Alfie said: “To be able to kind of reignite that would be incredible.”
The brave contestant revealed to viewers at home that his mum was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer shortly after he was born and was given just six weeks to live.
As the emotional scenes rolled out, viewers at home took to X X(Twitter) and shared their support.
One user wrote: “Really feel for Alfie.”
“Alfie’s story has me sobbing,” another added.
A third viewer chimed: “Alfie has absolutely broken me.”
While a fourth followed it with: “Was not ready for that,” with a tearful emoji.
Alfie also revealed during the outing: “It was her number one aim, she said, ‘Well, if I’m going to die, I’m at least going to die when he’s in school,’ so she managed to take me to school on the first day, I think it was a very proud day for her.
“It was genuinely a deterioration from there, and I think she’d kind of pushed it as far as she could in terms of battling on. She kept hanging on.”
He added: “I was five when my mum passed away in December of 2008.”
While Alfie lit a floating lantern and let it go, he said: “This is the first opportunity I’ve had on the race to think about my mum.
“I’m just inundated with emotions I’ve genuinely not felt since I was a little kid. I just kind of want that sensation of being able to see her again.”
The young traveller then buried his hands on his head before tearfully saying: “I miss her intensely, and I still dream of what was.”
Race Across The World airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.