Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas said she “almost didn’t make it” after choking minutes before the live Blackpool show.
Before the show hosted at the iconic Blackpool Tower kicked off, Shirley, 65, was struggling to breathe as she recalled the “terrifying” moment to fans. The head judge said the panel would have been a ‘judge down’ if it wasn’t for her hairstylist, Jane, who was forced to do the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Speaking in a video to her followers, she said: “I choked on a fishbone. It got lodged in my throat, and my wonderful Jane, who has been with me for nine years, did the Heimlich manoeuvre, and we got the bone out. But for 20 minutes there, it was lodged and I couldn’t breathe, so it was terrifying.”
Wirral-born Shirley added as she shared a video to her Instagram: “We’d have been a judge down tonight if it wasn’t for her.” Updating her fans on how she was, she said: “I’m a bit hoarse, but all is good.”
The judge has now vowed to learn the Heimlich manoeuvre, in case she needs to use it in the future.
The move involves abdominal thrusts to dislodge an object which may be lodged in someone’s airways. Shirley added, “I’m going to study now in case I ever come across anybody who needs my help.”
It comes after Shirley has faced several health struggles, including a cancer scare after finding lumpy tissue in her left breast. She was given the all clear after three biopsies and a mammogram, but Shirley said she was ‘worried’ she had ‘worked myself to death’.
She told The Sun: “It’s been terrifying, to have the needle go in your body to numb it before the biopsy. I feel very emotional. I’m not the same at work at the moment, so I’m teaching, but it’s constantly on my mind.”
Last year the Strictly star revealed she had been diagnosed with a degenerative spine disorder and what she is doing to help her condition.
She told The Sun: “It is three types of operation. And I don’t want to do the operations so I am doing anti-inflammatory. I am trying to do more juicing, ice bathing. Oh yeah, I have got a brass monkey ice bath. I can go up to about four minutes now, I have built up to in the freezing, freezing cold at 5am.
“So I would say it really stimulates me to start my day, plus I have cut my hours down at work because I don’t want any operations for as long as I possibly don’t have to have any.”