BBC Strictly Come Dancing star was left bedbound after horror fall

A Strictly Come Dancing star's career nearly came to an end after a horror fall. Nicola Adams' boxing career was almost halted by the harrowing injury, which left her bedbound for three months.

The 41-year-old took up boxing at the tender age of 12 and battled her way up in a male-dominated sport. The Leeds-born star became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title when she bagged a gold medal at London 2012 and went one better by becoming the world's first female double Olympic boxing champion at Rio 2016.

But just a few years earlier, her boxing future was thrown into doubt when she fractured her spine. Telling OK! magazine about the fateful incident in 2008, Nicola said: "I was getting ready for a competition and rushing around, I came running down the stairs and had left my bandages hanging out of my bag. I tripped over them and went tumbling down the stairs. I actually fractured one of the vertebras in my spine."

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Nicola said as it was announced that women's boxing would be an Olympic sport, she "couldn't even move", adding: "I was bed-bound for three months and had gone from being able to do 500 sit-ups a day to not even being able to lift my shoulders off of the floor."

She admitted she thought her career was over before it had truly begun and it had been "a really, really difficult time mentally and physically". Nicola continued: "There were a few times when I'd be sat on the sidelines receiving physio and I'd see all my teammates training and I'd be thinking, 'Am I even going to be able to get back to the boxer that I was?' I started setting goals and my first goal was being able to walk 50 metres without being in pain."

Not only did Nicola get back in the ring for an inspiring combeack, she also became a first-time parent. Nicola and her partner Ella Baig welcomed a baby boy named Taylor in July 2022, who will soon turn two.