Strictly Come Dancing‘s Amy Dowden has said she is “so gutted” to be missing the Blackpool Tower Ballroom show this weekend – but had a carefully designed plan to get JB Gill to the final that is already in motion.
Dowden had to quit the BBC contest last week over a foot injury and has been replaced by Lauren Oakley, who has taken up the baton on Dowden’s masterplan to put JLS star Gill into the 2024 grand final.
The dancer also passed on a message of love and support to Davina McCall, who revealed on Friday that she was having brain surgery to remove a benign tumour.
Amy Dowden is understandably devastated not to be taking part in Strictly Come Dancing’s annual trip to Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom, but she told Lorraine on Friday that partner JB Gill was still on course with her plan to get him into the final.
Dowden was forced to drop out last week over a foot injury, telling fans “my heart is breaking” as she had an early exit to her comeback series after breast cancer treatment last year.
This Saturday marks a particularly difficult milestone as the Strictly stars look forward to visiting the home of ballroom each year, but Dowden shared that it hadn’t put her off her plan of getting JLS star Gill to the series final.
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She told Lorraine host Christine Lampard: “It’s the goal, everybody wants to make it to Blackpool and there’s something so special about being there. I remember walking in when I was eight years old and just being like, wow. That’s when I turned to my mum and said, ‘Mam, I want to be a professional dancer’.
“I was lucky enough to be crowned British champion there in 2016 and then I danced with Karim (Zeroual, her 2019 partner) there, we got nearly a perfect score – 39 out of 40.
“I’m just so gutted I won’t be dancing there this weekend.”
But she added: “It’s definitely not the way I wanted it, but I’m so proud of JB, Lauren’s (Oakley) doing a great job and obviously I planned the series to have his best numbers towards the end to get him to the final because he’s so talented. I’ve seen the Quickstep and everybody’s in for a treat and there’s more tens coming.”
Davina McCall shocked fans on Friday morning with the news that she is in hospital to undergo brain surgery on a benign tumour.
The My Mum, Your Dad host posted a video to Instagram with her boyfriend Michael Douglas where she said that the tumour, picked up unexpectedly on a health scan she had been offered in return for a menopause talk, was “big”.
She added: “It fills the space, it’s 14mm wide and it needs to come out because if it grows, it would be bad. So, I’m having it removed via a craniotomy, they go through the top of my head here, and through the two halves of my brain, to the middle, get the cyst, empty it, take it out, Bob’s your uncle.”
McCall reassured followers that she is “in good spirits”, and asked them to “say a prayer for me”.
Speaking to Lorraine, Dowden added her own support to McCall as she said: “She was so kind to me every time I’ve seen her. When I got put into menopause because of my hormone fed cancer, she gave me so many menopause tips. Always so kind and always thinking of others, so I’m sending all my love.”
Lorraine airs on ITV1 at 9am on weekdays.
