Strictly's Shirley Ballas gives health update and 'urges' women to get tested after cancer scare
Strictly Come Dancing ’s Shirley Ballas has bravely shared her recent health journey with fans, revealing a cancer scare at the age of 63.
Taking to Instagram, the beloved BBC star urged women not to overlook the importance of regular mammograms after undergoing a biopsy following a concerning mammogram result.
In her heartfelt message to followers, Shirley emphasised the importance of early detection, penning: "Urging all women do not miss your mammogram. I went for mine, ended up going for a second one and a biopsy. Local anaesthetic biopsy done. Now waiting for results.
"Amy Dowden you ran through my mind. The importance of not putting it off. Go and get tested. Plus self breast check regularly."
Strictly professional Amy, 33, was absent from the last series of the show due to her battle with breast cancer.
The Welsh dancer had a mastectomy and chemotherapy and will continue to need monthly injections for the next five years. She is now hoping for a return to Strictly after being told there was no longer any sign of cancer in her body.
Shirley's own health concerns have been a recurring theme in recent years. In 2019, she made the decision to undergo breast implant removal surgery due to fears of cancer, spurred by a family history of the disease.
Shirley, whose mother and aunt had battled cancer, and tragically lost another aunt to the disease, was prompted to undergo the surgery by a nurse's unsettling words during a mammogram, cautioning her, "There's no guarantee that we can ever really see behind the back of the implants."
Reflecting on her past choices, Shirley expressed regret over succumbing to societal pressures, stating: “I did mine not to be vain but because I thought I looked ugly.
“If I could go back and talk to my younger self I would say, ‘Never get them done.’ But I did them because I had low self-esteem and no confidence. People told me, ‘Oh you’ve got a chest like two currants on a bread board.’ They would say they’re joking, but you still absorb it. It still goes in your mind.”
Shirley has also shared her experiences of terrible "bullying" in the dance industry that nearly ended her career before she joined the BBC show.
She revealed on the It Can't Just Be Me podcast: "In 2015, 2016 and 2017, I was being badly bullied in an industry - my industry is primarily run by men - and they were stopping my work. So I was at the very, very top of the tree, teaching all the top competitors in the world. And then these men at the top started to stop my work. I don't know whether they didn't like it that I was becoming quite a 'somebody' in the industry, a great teacher or whatever."
She admitted feeling really low before getting a surprise job offer: "For me, it was quite devastating at the time, and then Strictly came along out of the blue."