Shirley Ballas says impact of her mum’s lung condition is ‘really quite scary’

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas has said her mother’s lung condition which causes her to choke and struggle to breathe is “really quite scary”.

The 65-year-old said she will speak to MPs in Parliament to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties, after her mother Audrey was diagnosed with it in 2022.

She told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t want anyone to witness the things I’ve witnessed, when you sit opposite somebody who’s choking and cannot open the airways to breathe, it’s really, really quite scary.”

The dancer said her mother, who she said had smoked since childhood, had been “suffering for many years” before her diagnosis, after which Ballas said doctors told her that if her mother ever caught a flu she risked being “really poorly”, potentially escalating to pneumonia.

She said the diagnosis led to her working with pharmaceutical company Sanofi’s Breathe Equal campaign to raise awareness of issues relating to respiratory conditions.

Ballas added: “I’ve witnessed a choking, I’ve been out with her when she’s out of breath, and of course, she lives with me, and it’s… it’s quite sad, it’s debilitating, and also it’s never going to get any better.

“So it’s about finding a way to help her care for that, and, of course, keeping us safe from any of the flus that are going around.

“I’d also like to see that in certain deprived areas that everybody you know has that opportunity to be able to get care…

“I just want to get that word out generally to everybody, if you’re feeling unwell, or coughing or not feeling the best, to go and try to see the doctor and get diagnosed.”

The NHS says COPD can present itself as emphysema, damage to the air sacs in the lungs, and chronic bronchitis, long-term inflammation of the airways.

It says COPD is a common condition that mainly affects middle-aged or older people who smoke, with many sufferers not realising they have it.