Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PM slams vile abuse of MPS
He never saw me cry. I smiled. I put my make-up on and did my hair every day
Paul was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She knew something was wrong when he became withdrawn after doing Christmas panto Aladdin in Ipswich in 2015. She said: “He had lost his sparkle. I had never seen him like this.”
Doctors thought it was an underactive thyroid, then pneumonia. But when he was violently sick in February last year, she called an ambulance and a scan found a tumour. “Within two hours they told me he had two months,” she said.
Debbie brought Paul home to their riverside house in Berkshire to nurse him in his final weeks. They had breakfast under the weeping willows in the garden and ate Magnum ice creams while they watched quiz shows.
Debbie said: “He never saw me cry. I couldn’t let him spend the last days looking at me weeping. I had to dig deep but I have always been a strong person, sometimes even stronger than Paul. I smiled, I put my make-up on and did my hair every day. Even minutes before he slipped into that sleep he was smiling at me and joking and singing Beatles songs.”
Debbie was devastated when Paul died a month and five days after his diagnosis. It was only the chance to do Strictly that gave her something to smile about again.
Paul was the second star voted off in 2010’s series but Debbie was determined to do him proud. And he was firmly in her mind when she scored the first 40 of 2017 for her tango with Giovanni Pernice.
Despite being the oldest contestant this year, she was one of the bookies’ favourites throughout, before being pipped to the post by Joe. It was a Herculean effort as she had battled a virus all week, saying on her blog: “I can’t remember ever feeling this ill.” But there was no chance she was going to pull out.
“When Paul died I completely lost my sparkle,” she has said. “I laughed but I wasn’t happy. Strictly has given me the clear feelings of happy back.”
There were suggestions that happiness was down to a romance with her 27-year-old partner after they shared a kiss on the dance floor. But Debbie quickly put paid to those rumours, saying: “We do have chemistry and we’re great mates and I think that’s probably more special than if there was anything else going on. I felt Paul was with me the whole time. When I walked down that studio floor there was always a moment I thought of him. I could imagine if Paul was alive and watching, he would give me notes.” As well as the Strictly tour, Debbie is expected to get fitness DVD and book deals – and is tipped for I’m A Celebrity next year. But she is just pleased the world has finally seen who she really is. Debbie says: “Paul had such a big personality. On TV shows they always held me back because I was the little assistant in a box, I was always the little wife, edited out. I haven’t suddenly developed a personality for Strictly because Paul has died. I have always been cheeky and bubbly and a joker but the public never got to see me like that. “Paul would have been so proud of what I’ve achieved. However hard things get, you realise you will get through it, which is what I have learnt over the last year too.” THERESA May has condemned trolls who threaten politicians after Remain rebels faced death threats and a Tory MP’S pregnant wife was told: “Hope your baby dies”.
The PM said there was “no place in our politics” for intimidation and called for tolerance and respect.
Reports claimed leftwing activists targeted an unnamed Tory MP who taunted Jeremy Corbyn by suggesting he needed old age care. One message read: “We will put your head on a spike and film it.”
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