Chilled Hamza is taking good care of his glitterballs
BOOKIES’ favourite Hamza Yassin says “freezing his glitterballs” is the price he’s paying for success.
The wildlife cameraman needs 45-minute ice baths each night to cope with the strain of training.
Hamza, 32, says: “I started with bad knees, and the knees are slowly getting better. But each week, it’s a different part of the body that hates me. There’s loads of aching bits.
“I’ve been having ice baths to try to recover. I sit in them for 45 minutes every evening, basically until the ice melts, then get up and have a shower. I’m literally freezing my glitterballs!”
Sudan-born Hamza is known for his role as Ranger Hamza on the kids’ TV channel CBeebies and for his work on Countryfile and Animal Park.
SUPPORT
But his profile has rocketed thanks to Strictly. He admits: “I didn’t know I had it in me and I didn’t expect this reaction… far from it.
“When I first got announced as the 13th contestant, a lot of people were like, ‘Who? A BBC cameraman?’ But I really love the support.”
Hamza – who last night danced a quickstep with his pro partner Jowita Przystal, 28 – is shedding 2lb a week.
And he reveals he has a unique way of learning the dances, hailing dyslexia as his “Strictly superpower”.
He explains: “I think my dyslexia helps because Jowita will show me a video of what I’m doing wrong and what it needs to look like.
“I think in 3D so I know spacially where everything is.
“If you take me for a four-hour car journey, for example, I can bring you back without knowing the place. But that’s my brain that does it. For sure, it’s my superpower.
“If it wasn’t for my dyslexia, I wouldn’t be the man that I am now.
“I’d probably be a dentist, following in my family’s footsteps. Whereas dyslexia, for me, is my gift, my superpower, and I’ve run with it.
“I want to say to anyone who has dyslexia to see it as a gift, rather than a hindrance.”