Comedian Jayde Adams believes her biggest fan will be watching over her as she steps out in Strictly Come Dancing next month, cheering her on from beyond the grave.
And she even reckons her sister Jenna, who she danced with in childhood contests, helped get her on to the show.
Jayde, 37 said: “I think my sister’s definitely orchestrating things for me. It all feels so serendipitous.
“It’s such an emotional thing for me.”
Jenna, who was two years older than Jayde, died of a brain tumour 11 years ago aged just 28 after studying contemporary dance at university.
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The sisters had taken part in contests in their schooldays but Jayde admits she was better at being funny than doing disco moves.
“I was trying to be the world’s fattest contemporary dancer,” she says.
“But it was a lot of getting up and down off the floor, which was tiresome.
“I really held Jenna back in freestyle disco-dancing. Even though I had pizzazz and something about me, back in the 90s if you were chubby you weren’t a dancer.
“My sister wasn’t like that and she was really good – but what it gave me was this real ease on stage which was really useful for stand-up.”
Tragedy struck the Bristol family in 2005 when Jenna had a seizure and was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
At the time Jayde was in her second year of a drama degree at Glamorgan University.
She says her sister inspired her to become a comic as she battled her illness, telling her: “Can you start making everyone laugh? “They’re all looking at me like I’m about to die and it’s doing my nut in.”
The loss of Jenna spurred Jayde to write her award-winning debut stand-up show which included a performance of her take on the evolution of dance.
“There are videos on YouTube if you can hunt them out,” says Jayde. “It was all silent and I just moved my body. I had stage presence, it was just the jokes I needed.”
In 2014 Jayde won the Funny Women award and in 2016 she was a nominee for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
She has since been a panellist on Channel 4 ’s comedy quiz shows 8 Out of 10 Cats and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
And now she’s looking forward to her Strictly debut along with singer Matt Goss, former Coronation Street actress Kym Marsh and Hollyoaks star Will Mellor.
