The Neighbours star has been forced to quit Strictly Come Dancing but is stuck in the UK until November for health reasons
Stefan Dennis had already ripped his calf muscle when he performed his Charleston on Strictly Come Dancing last weekend – and only painkillers got him through. But after being forced to leave the BBC ballroom show because of his injury he told of his frustration at being unable to return home and see his wife Gail and three kids.
At Tuesday’s Pride of Britain Awards, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the Neighbours star was among the huge contingent of Strictly Come Dancing celebrities, professional dancers and judges who handed teenager Zach Eagling his award in recognition of all that he has achieved.
Speaking afterwards, Stefan – whose soap character Paul Robinson lost a leg in a cliff fall – admitted to feeling “gutted” to leave the show through injury so soon after he and pro partner Dianne Buswell scored 26 points for their fun Charleston, their highest of the series so far, and he says he feels like he’s letting everyone down.
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Not only that, his wife of 25 years Gail Easdale has been left dismayed that he will not be able to travel home until next month, because medics have banned him from getting on an aeroplane. “I can’t fly for another two weeks because of the risk of deep vein thrombosis which my wife is pretty upset about”, he explained. “I just feel like I’ve let everyone down. They all say I haven’t, of course, and the pros know all about injuries, but it feels like a shame to go out in this way. It was all going so well. When you go out, you want it to be because the viewers have spoken, because it’s your time, not like this”.
Stefan, 66, feels guilty for pulling out just a day after viewers watched Chris Robshaw and his partner Nadiya Bychkova get voted out – and even asked producers if Chris could return to the competition in his place. “I said they should keep Chris in now that I’m going but they said they couldn’t do that – once you’ve gone, you’ve gone.”
He thinks that his unscheduled exit will result in there being just three pairings in the final – so long as no one else gets injured along the way. “That’s what has happened before I believe”.
The Neighbours star, who is the oldest in this year’s competition but who keeps himself fit and active with extreme sports in his downtime, said he doesn’t know precisely when the muscle damage was done. “It happened at the end of last week, it was nothing specific, we’d been training as usual and it just started hurting. When I got it checked they said I’d ripped my calf muscle. I got through Saturday night’s show on a truck load of painkillers. They took the edge off a little bit – but not much! I’m still not sure how we got through that routine”.
One reason, perhaps, was because all eyes were on his “brilliant teacher” Dianne, who did a cartwheel on the dance floor during the routine, while five months pregnant. Dianne, who has defended her decision to continue dancing while expecting her first baby with long-term partner Joe Sugg, will now get a well-deserved break as she heads towards the later stages of pregnancy.
“I thought I’d be able to carry on but they said absolutely not”, Stefan sighed. “The muscle needs complete rest. So that’s me done unfortunately”. He said the support and sympathy he’d received from the rest of this year’s celebs had been enormous. “Strictly is this huge machine. And we’ve all got so close, it doesn’t feel like a competition, we all just want each other to do well, every time”.
Announcing his departure on Monday, he wrote on social media: “” I was told that on Saturday I had torn my calf so significantly that I am now forced to withdraw from the show. I owe both the Strictly Family and Dianne a massive debt of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to fulfil my dream of being able to dance with my wife. (When my leg is better). “
His departure comes after he missed week three of the competition due to an unrelated illness”. I had a little bit of a turn, a little bit of an episode with vertigo, “he said at the time”. But it was all OK, I made myself right again with the help of some good people at the hospital. “
Stefan said that the inspirational story of Zach at the Pride of Britain Awards had helped him to deal with his disappointment over the early exit. “Hearing about Zach and his story helped to keep it all in perspective,” he said. “What an amazing young man he is.”
A brain injury at birth left Zach with both cerebral palsy and epilepsy. During lockdown, when he was just eight years old, he walked laps of his garden to raise money for the Epilepsy Society. But after his achievement was celebrated online by the charity, trolls bombarded him with flashing images in a deliberate attempt to trigger his seizures.
Determined to ensure that this could never happen to anyone again Zach, now 14, campaigned to protect those with epilepsy online. Known as Zach’s Law, the legislation officially came into effect in September 2023, making it a criminal offence to troll anyone with epilepsy in a bid to cause seizures – which carries a maximum five year prison sentence.
