Strictly's Toyah Willcox, 66, opens up about surgery which left her learning to walk again

Singer Toyah Willcox has recalled previously having had to learn to walk again amid her Strictly Come Dancing stint.

Toyah, 66, is among the contestants on the new series of the long-running BBC show and has been paired up with professional dancer Neil Jones. They performed their first routine together on Saturday night, taking on a tango. Ahead of the performance, Toyah shared in footage filmed during a rehearsal for the first live show that there could be moves that her body isn't comfortable with. She then took the opportunity to mention the corrective surgery she'd had.

Discussing the tango, she said: "You have to twist your body - it's all about pivoting, which is something I've avoided for about 30 years." Asked how she was finding training, she said: "Obviously, there's gonna be moves you give me that my body is just gonna go 'stop now'." She continued: "When I was 51 because I was born with one leg just under 2 inches longer than the other, I had corrective surgery to make my legs the same length, but then I had to learn to walk again."

It isn't the first time that Toyah - who's experienced various health issues in her life, including having been born with a twisted spine - has spoken about the surgery she had in 2009. She's previously said that she was "reinvented" by it.

As reported by the Belfast Telegraph two years later, Toyah had a hip replacement too. The outlet reports that her right hip, supported only by cartilage and muscle, had become inflamed and that she had then struggled to walk prior.

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She said: "I've had a titanium hip replacement and my leg shortened, so now it's the same size as the other one. I no longer have to wear special shoes." Toyah added at the time: "It took me two months to learn to walk again."

The performer went on to tease in the interview in 2011 that as a result she had been experiencing "full mobility for the first time" in her life. She further stated that she had been able to move around the stage "more freely" than before.

And whilst speaking to the Daily Mail that same year, she revealed that she had been born with "shallow hip sockets" as well as one leg shorter than the other. Opening up about the subsequent surgery, Toyah said in the interview with the outlet: "In the past two years my right hip became a nightmare so I had a replacement. I had to use crutches and learn to walk again, but it transformed my life."

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