My Life: Lisa Riley

She wowed the judges and the public, showing that big girls can dance. But what few people knew was that Lisa was going through heartbreak as her beloved mum Cath, had recently lost her battle with cancer.

“Mum loved Strictly and that was one of the reasons I’d decided to do it rather than any of the other celebrity reality TV shows,” says Lisa, 37. Her mum’s death was a body blow to Lisa. Cath was not just her mum, she was her best friend.

“Mum really, really believed in me. When she died I was devastated. But she was such a positive person, and so am I. I knew I had to pick myself up and get on with it. I had to do it for mum. I knew everytime I danced with Robin (Windsor) mum was watching. Robin was her favourite and she picked him for me.”

She may be a naturally positive person, but Lisa is also prone to anxiety attacks, which she puts down to finding fame early.

Always a confident child, Lisa from Bury, would crave to be centre of attention.

“It was mum’s idea that I should join the Oldham Theatre Workshop when I was nine,” recalls Lisa. The weekend drama school has given rise to many actors including Anna Friel and Gemma Wardle. Lisa’s first break came when she got a part in the two-part television drama Blood and Peaches, set and filmed in Bradford. But it was landing the role of Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale which turned Lisa into a household name.

She played Mandy for six and a half years, winning the National Television Awards for most popular newcomer.

“Suddenly I couldn’t go anywhere without people recognising me or my picture in the paper. And although I like being the centre of attention it all just became too much.

“I wasn’t even 19 when I got the role. All my friends were at uni and I felt like I was always in the public eye and all just became too much.” Lisa started to suffer panic attacks.

“I felt suffocated by the attention wherever I went,” she recalls in her autobiography, Lisa: Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover.

She had everything she ever wanted and was also hosting You’ve Been Framed, but she was deeply unhappy. She compensated by going shopping and spending a fortune as well as drinking heavily. In the end she decided to leave Emmerdale and return home. “I loved my time in Emmerdale, but I was still in my 20s and I didn’t want to spend my life as Mandy Dingle. I needed my family. I needed to find me again.”

A number of TV roles followed including Fat Friends but it was Strictly come Dancing which really saw Lisa shake off Mandy Dingle.

“I thought I’d last two dances and be voted out,” she says. But instead she and dance partner Robin became the stars of the BBC show, making it through to the semi finals.

Lisa may not have won but she showed that size doesn’t matter.

“I have had so many people say I am an inspiration to them that is what is really important to me,” she says.

She still misses her mum and the spectre of the cancer which has blighted her family still looms.

But Lisa is determined to stay positive.

“I can either spend my life worrying about it. Or I can get on with it, like my mum would have wanted me to.”

Lisa signs in to delight her fans

Lisa Riley will be signing copies of her autobiography Lisa: Never Judge a Book by Its Cover at WH Smith, Frenchgate Centre, Doncaster, at 1pm on Friday November 15.

Lisa will also be hosting the Strictly Come Dancing 
Live Tour 2014 which will be at

Leeds: First Direct Arena on January 24 - 26

Sheffield: Motorpoint Arena on January 28 - 29.

For more information visit www.strictly comedancinglive.com