Michaela Strachan opens up about the emotional toll of her breast cancer battle – and reveals her reluctance to wear tight tops after a double mastectomy as she makes a return to our screens for Dancing on Ice

Michaela Strachan has opened up about the emotional toll of her breast cancer battle and lifted the lid on her worries as she prepares to take to the rink for Dancing On Ice next week.

The Springwatch presenter, 58, was diagnosed at the beginning of 2014 after a routine mammogram, and went on to make a full recovery after a double mastectomy which was followed by reconstructive surgery.

When it comes to taking part in the ITV show, Michaela has candidly admitted it’s the tight tops that bother her, not the fear of horrifying injuries.

She laughed nervously: ‘Who thought it was a good idea to put knives on the bottom of boots, skate around and do fancy tricks on a slidy surface? That is wonderfully absurd!’

The show has claimed quite a few high-profile casualties over the years with Olympian Greg Rutherford tearing his abdominal muscles last time around. 

Jennifer Ellison sliced her own head with a skate in a previous series, Denise Van Outen dislocated a shoulder and Vanilla Ice was knocked out cold.

Even the professionals who partner with celebrities have been slashed by stray blades. 

‘I was worried,’ admitted Michaela. ‘When I first said yes to this, my partner Nick and I rather stupidly looked at a compilation of all the accidents on YouTube. Nick looked at me and said, ‘Please don’t do it. This is really stupid.’

When quizzed on whether she was close to quitting, Michaela revealed: ‘I did think hard about it. I’m 58 years old, I’m lucky to be fit and healthy, having had a cancer scare in my life. 

‘My soul food is hiking in the mountains. Do I want to jeopardise that? Do I want an injury I’ll never get over? I did have second thoughts.’

She asked about accidents during the medical and was told only one contestant had ever got cold feet and left before the contest started. ‘I thought, ‘No, I’m not a quitter. I agreed to this, let’s get on with it.’

Michaela was born in Surrey but moved to Cape Town in 2002 after falling in love with Nick Chevallier, a South African cameraman and producer. 

She started her training with a local coach there. ‘For the first week I was terrified of falling. Then I did fall and I didn’t hurt myself. I thought, ‘Right, it’s fine.’ Obviously some people do get hurt badly; let’s hope I’m not one of them.’

Now Michaela has left Nick 8,500 miles away to live in an Airbnb on a farm near Henley while she trains for four hours a day at an ice rink in Slough.

‘This is the perfect year for this, the first time I could have done it, as my child has started university.’ 

Ollie was educated in South Africa but has come to this country to study. ‘He’s at Loughborough, so it’s worked incredibly well.’

Michaela has three stepchildren who are grown up. ‘We’re empty-nesters. There’s a definite silence. I feel sorry for Nick, on his own, although my stepson and his fiancée, who’s pregnant, have moved back.’

The presneter is spending her days with the Scottish skater Mark Hanretty, her partner on the show. 

‘He’s the nicest man on ice. Mark has said this will be his last series [after ten] so I want it to be a happy time, whether we get to week three or week nine.’

When asked about if she is naturally daring, Michaela revealed:  ‘I probably was, when I think of what I’ve done in my life.’ 

She trained in musical theatre but got her first break on Saturday morning kids television in the 80s and was the female half of The Hitman And Her with record producer Pete Waterman, touring nightclubs and interviewing punters or bands (she introduced Take That for their first television appearance).

After a brief stab at pop stardom, Michaela shifted to hosting shows about animals, such as The Really Wild Show.

‘I’ve fed sharks underwater in a chainmail suit, I’ve done cage diving and things others wouldn’t have,’ she says. ‘But as you age you sit in your comfort zone. It’s good to push myself like this.’

But not all her mates are convinced she’s safe. ‘Every time I phone Chris Packham he says, ‘Are you calling from A&E?’ He is, of course, her on-screen partner for Springwatch and its variations. ‘He said, ‘Just remember, go out with dignity.’

They have compelling chemistry, the intense former punk and the sarcastic but sunny Michaela. ‘We trust each other and can read each other’s minds. We see it when one of us has gone blank and pick things up.’

The Watches are live, unscripted, seat-of-your-pants prime-time TV with unpredictable wild animals.

‘The audience find it hilarious when we go wrong. Mind you, forgetting what you’re doing on Winterwatch is not daunting. Forgetting what you’re doing when you’re spinning round the ice on skates is really daunting!’

She confesses, ‘There’s a part of me that thinks this is a stupid thing to do, but I did Splash! [the reality diving show] and that was stupid as well. Someone landed on their face and blood came out of their eye sockets.’

That was in 2014, when Michaela and other celebrities learned to dive under the instruction of Olympic champion Tom Daley. 

She added: ‘I would have liked to have done Strictly. I was asked this year, but I didn’t make the final cut. I think this is a much bigger challenge.’

Behind all this lurks the 2014 scare she mentioned earlier. ‘I don’t want to be defined by this, but if it helps people I don’t mind talking about it,’ she says.  

‘I went for a routine mammogram on a Monday. That evening the doctor phoned and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have breast cancer.’

She was driving home in Cape Town. ‘All I heard was ‘cancer’. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to tell Nick.’

Nick had lost his wife Nicky, the mother of three of his children, to cancer. When I ask how he took it, Michaela says quietly, ‘It was difficult. It was really hard.’ 

Others had the same question, which irritated her. ‘His friends were like, ‘Oh my God, what did Nick say?’ You get to the point where you think, ‘Hello, I feel sorry for Nick too, but this is happening to me!’

Things moved quickly, as they had private health care. ‘By Wednesday I was seeing the specialist. He said the most bizarre thing, ‘Considering you have breast cancer, this is the best news: we have caught it early and we can treat it. Go home and have a glass of champagne.’

The cancer had been hard to spot. ‘It wasn’t a lump, so we were grateful to the guy who did the biopsy.’

Doctors offered her the choice of having one or two breasts removed. ‘I talked to a friend who’d had a double mastectomy who said, ‘If I were you, I’d get them both off or you’ll worry.’ 

From diagnosis to recovery was six weeks. ‘It’s only afterwards you process it all. That takes time.’

She has given this a lot of thought since. ‘Surely there’s a better way of dealing with a tiny bit of cancer in a woman’s breast than chopping them off? It seems brutal, doesn’t it? I hope it doesn’t have to be that way in 20 years’ time. It’s a hell of a thing to take a woman’s boobs off.’

Michaela has had reconstructive surgery and asked the stylists on Dancing On Ice to take that into account. ‘Obviously I’m very brave and all that, but I don’t want a tight top on my boobs, thanks very much.’

She’s small and trim in her black jeans and floral shirt, but Michaela says she’s lost weight during training. 

‘You work so hard you forget lunch. We eat a banana and that’s it. I’m on an endorphin rush at the moment.’

Michaela added: ‘Most days I’ve also done yoga or Pilates and I’ve joined a spa where I go swimming and sit in the steam room or sauna, which helps. The first few weeks of working with Mark, everything hurt.’

Lifting the lid on her health now, the star said: ‘No one’s clear forever. I was on the drug tamoxifen for five years. Then I was given the all-clear. When people call me a cancer survivor, it jars. I forget I had it. It’s an amazing position to be in.’

There was a terrible reminder last year, when her friend Lucy Bowden, a former Springwatch producer, was given a similar diagnosis and choice. 

‘They caught the cancer early, it hadn’t spread. She had one breast taken off. She was unlucky,’ says Michaela flatly. 

‘The cancer came back.’ Lucy’s funeral was the week before Michaela took part in the BBC show Pilgrimage. ‘I was grieving the death of one of my closest friends. I walked that with her.’

A priest invited those walking the North Wales Pilgrims’ Way to write a name on a stone and leave it on the beach in contemplation of someone they had lost. 

Michaela broke down. ‘I wasn’t sure how comfortable I felt having raw emotion filmed. I’m usually in control of myself. The camera on you as you’re sobbing your heart out is an extra layer to deal with.’

Lucy is still on Michaela’s mind. ‘I feel sad she’s not here to see me do this; she would have been the friend who was 100 per cent invested in this journey. She was Mrs Entertainment Telly.’ There’s a catch in Michaela’s voice. ‘I really miss her.’

Finally, when asked if she would ever consider coming back to live in Britain, Michaela reasoned: ‘I never say never to anything any more. Who knows? I’ve really enjoyed my time here. I have thoroughly made the most of it. I’ve gone out every night.’

‘I miss home, my partner and dog, but considering I’m here, I’ve embraced it,’ she said. ‘To any woman feeling like an empty-nester: take on a challenge. Doing this made me feel 20 years younger.’

Her face lit up. ‘I’m not at home in an empty house going, ‘What do I do now?’ Do something for yourself. It’s brought real joy to me.’

Dancing On Ice returns on 12 January from 6.30pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.