A waltz will be a good start.. I was learning it just before I got blown up
JJ Chalmers on facing Strictly challenge
JJ CHALMERS says Strictly Come Dancing will give him the chance to resume his waltz training – after a bomb blast abruptly halted it.
The former Royal Marine lance corporal from Fife was blown up while on duty in Helmand Province nine years ago.
He said: “When I was in Afghanistan, I was learning how to dance for my brother’s wedding.
“I was meant to come back and go to the wedding. I wanted to surprise my girlfriend, now wife, that I could actually learn to waltz.
“One of the guys in my checkpoint in Afghanistan had been a semi-professional dancer. So we started doing the waltz and then both of us got blown up.”
His teacher, L/Cpl Cassidy Little, survived but lost a leg below the knee.
Sports TV presenter JJ, 33, said of his own injuries: “I got smashed to pieces.
“When this explosion went off, I wasn’t standing on top of the thing... unfortunately one of my friends was, but I was talking to him so I was close enough that all the debris just smashed my body from pretty much my knees up.
“So my feet should be all right. I was very fortunate to be able to keep more or less all my body parts except for a couple of fingers, but none of the things work the way they should.” But he thinks the training regime will help, saying: “There are not many better forms of exercise and activity than dancing for improving your overall body posture, body fitness and mobility.”
Since the blast, which claimed the lives of Marine Sam Alexander MC and Lt Ollie Augustin and maimed nine others, JJ has fought back to fitness, got married, had a daughter, and forged a successful career as a broadcaster, with jobs including hosting the Paralympics and Invictus Games. JJ has said he can never leave behind what happened on that day. But he added: “I’m not going to let it define me either.” He added he will give Strictly “my absolute everything”. He has the support of wife Kornelia... as well as that of a younger relative. JJ said: “My nephew Rory is starting a fan club with his friends... they’re calling it The JJ Cha Cha Chalmers Fan Club.” And revealing his competitive streak, he added: “My job is not to go out there to inspire people, my job is to get as good at dancing as I possibly