Strictly star Sarah Hadland's terrifying hospital dash and deep fear during health battle

Sarah Hadland, 53, has described how eating an every day meal left her struggling to breathe - thankfully, fast arriving paramedics were able to help the stricken star

Miranda actress Sarah Hadland finished top of the leader board last week for her dazzling Couple's Choice routine on Strictly Come Dancing.

The star, who is partnered with Italian Vito Coppola on the show, netted three 10s for her performance in the legendary Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

Sarah, 53, has dance experience under her belt - she began training at the age of three and went onto perform in musicals Cats and Grease in London's West End. And she isn't the only contestant this year to be trained - Love Island's Tasha Ghouri, 26, worked as a commercial dancer too.

The star is best known for playing Stevie in the BBC sitcom Miranda, the hapless best friend of the show's titular character. Crazy things happen to the pals on the show, but in a bizarre story offscreen health scare, the actress was once nearly floored by eating plaice.

Sarah explained she had bought two fillets of the white fish, eating the first without an issue but beginning to feel ill after she ate the second. "It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my life," she told the Express.

"My lips started to swell up quite quickly and I was itching all over. I was on my own in the house and I rang my mum, who was in Manchester, on my mobile and said: 'I think something is happening to me.' Neither of us thought of calling an ambulance because I'd never been very ill before and didn't want to bother anybody."

With the actress's condition rapidly declining, she decide to call NHS Direct. And when Sarah described her alarming symptoms, the operator realised she was probably having an anaphylactic shock and dispatched an ambulance to her door.

"While I was on the phone to them all my lymph nodes began swelling up, under my armpits, in my groin, behind my knees and there was a bizarre swelling like a cauliflower that caused my left eye to close completely," said Sarah. "My ears felt as though I was underwater. By then, I was struggling to breathe as it felt like the back of my throat was closing up."

The star was asked to leave her front door unlocked for paramedics to gain access, in case she passed out before they arrived. "I feared I might be dying," she said. "If the ambulance crew hadn't come so quickly it could have been a different story."

Sarah made a full recovery after paramedics arrived with an adrenaline pen and nowadays, she makes sure she always has her own close by. She doesn't touch white fish, in case her allergic reaction happens again.