Anastacia has reclaimed a "little piece" of her femininity doing 'Strictly Come Dancing'.
Anastacia
The 48-year-old singer agreed to take part in this year's series of the ballroom and latin show because she wanted to donate her fee to Breast Cancer Awareness following her double mastectomy last year after two separate battles with cancer.
And, although she was given the boot in week six, she's proud of her journey and finally feels like a woman again following the invasive surgery.
Speaking in Fault magazine, she said: "Every little thing that I'm doing, including 'Strictly Come Dancing' was me trying to reclaim a little piece of my femininity that cancer stole from me. When you have as many surgeries as I've had, you lose so many female sensations that you'll never get back. Nipple sensation is something that cancer robbed from my anatomy and I'm used to it now but there is that little part of me that will always be lost. Doing 'Strictly...' and doing this shoot I feel like I'm finally becoming the woman that I was again."
However, her journey on the show wasn't as easy as she thought it would be as the 'I'm Outta Love' hitmaker ripped the scar tissue while training and thought she'd need another operation.
She explained: "I just thought it was a sore muscle and I just waited for it to pass but it got progressively worse and then I felt a lump which I knew couldn't be cancer because I didn't have any breast tissue left but it had to be something.
"I went to see a doctor and as it turns out it was an inflamed scar tissue. I found this out on Saturday morning and the show was filmed live on Saturday night. I decided to continue with the performance, and we took out the lift to help me do that. By the end of the performance I was in a lot of pain, and knew I needed to see a specialist.
"Then I was told there was a dance off. I knew I was physically unable to perform, and I was terrified about what damage I had already done.
"I began to cry and said "sorry I'll get my things and go and thanks for the opportunity" and I was ready to leave ...I didn't know they had contingencies for occurrences like that."
Anastacia was given an automatic pass into the next week which, in turn, meant that Melvin Odoom was axed from the competition, but she left four weeks later anyway.
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