Bucks Fizz star Jay spent ten days in hospital as part of her cancer battle, although she now reveals how the ordeal strengthened her marriage
SHE was most famous for having her skirt ripped off and flashing her thighs in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.
And now those same thighs have given Bucks Fizz star Jay Aston a whole new lease of life - as she reveals the tops of her legs were cut away in a painful procedure to treat cancer.
Jay Aston's life is now a million miles away from the carefree days of her youth, when all she had to worry about was what to wear on Top of the Pops and where her band's songs would chart that week.
Now 57, she's is recovering from a gruelling seven hour operation in which doctors removed a chunk of her tongue and replaced it with a chunk of her leg after she was diagnosed with mouth cancer earlier this year.
In a candid interview with Sun Online, the former pop star admits that sex with her husband is off the cards following the procedure, but nothing could stop them kissing when she got back from the hospital.
"As soon as we walked through the door, Dave and I had a kiss," recalls Jay, who has been married to Dave Colquhoun for 19 years.
"I could barely close my mouth because my tongue was so swollen but I managed it because it felt so wonderful to be home."
Jay was diagnosed with mouth cancer this June and has since undergone months of uncertainty and worry about her future.
But her one constant throughout her health ordeal has been Dave, the father of her 15 year-old daughter Josie.
"Dave has been so supportive, waiting on me hand and foot while I’ve been at home recovering," says Jay.
"We just naturally give each other strength and the cancer has made us so much closer and stronger as a couple.
"After something like this, all the bulls**t in your life gets put where it should be – at the bottom of the pile – and all that matters rises to the top."
The operation to remove the cancer was extensive and Jay’s body and looks have taken a battering.
Not only did she have a section of the left side of her tongue removed from front to back, but the surgeons took a skin graft from her upper thigh, which was inserted through her jawline and used to reconstruct the removed section of tongue.
Unsurprisingly, the operation and its aftermath have taken its toll on her sex life.
"Dave and I can – and do – still kiss but my movement is limited and with a gaping wound in your leg, intimacy is going to have to wait. It’s certainly not a priority," she says.
"I also had my lymph nodes removed from my neck to check if the cancer had spread and a tracheal tube inserted into my throat, which remained for a week after the operation to help me breathe because the swelling was so severe," adds Jay.
"The pain was the major battle though. At one point, I was on four types of pain relief but it felt like I hadn’t taken anything. Nerve pain can be excruciating and it’s notoriously hard to subdue."
As a performer who rose to fame with Bucks Fizz in the 1980s – most notably for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with "Making Your Mind Up" - blonde and glamorous Jay has spent a 40 year-singing career relying on both her looks and vocals.
"Just before the operation, I couldn’t stop thinking about the outcome," recalls Jay. "How would I sound? How would I look? I’m a vain sod! I’m in show business and we all know that part of being a performer is important."
And the operation has, sadly, left its mark.
"My looks are not what they were," says Jay. "I have a crooked smile, a lisp, my neck’s swollen and I’ll always have a dent in my leg.
"My daughter keeps saying to me, ‘Don’t worry, mum you’re going to be fine. You’ll look just like you did.’
"She gives me confidence about my looks returning but it’s going to take a good year before everything settles and I can really judge it for myself.
"Every day things are changing and I’ve taken photos of myself along the way because there have been times over the last few months when I’ve felt like progress has stalled and it’s heartening to see past pictures so I can see how much I’ve improved. They stop me feeling miserable."
Along with her looks, Jay’s voice has also suffered.
She has been working on an upcoming Christmas album with her new band The Fizz, which she formed with two of her original Bucks Fizz bandmates, Cheryl Baker, 64, and Mike Nolan, 63.
Jay started recording vocals before her operation, but now she is aware her tone is very different and it’s going to take hard work to get it back to normal.
"Three weeks after I came home, I felt well enough to play a song I’d written on the piano," recalls Jay.
"It felt nerve-wracking to test out my voice – and, I have to admit, it was upsetting to hear my change in tone and difficulty in pronunciation but it wasn’t bad for my first try and I was delighted to get through it.
"I’ve been improving steadily since but I think I’ll always have a different tone and will have to work harder on my breathing to get the sound as it should be," she says.
While she still experiences bouts of pain in her thigh and mouth, Jay is now back on the road, gigging and performing with The Fizz, not wanting to let her bandmates down.
"My mojo’s back and it’s now business as usual – back to singing, doing gigs and performing," says Jay, keen to remain upbeat.
"It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago I was writing a will," Jay adds. "I stupidly didn’t have one and had to prepare for the worst.
"My mother died of cancer and all types of cancer ran in my family so I was very aware of how fragile and unpredictable everything could be.
"I tried to play it down for Josie, but when Dave and I sat down to talk about my will she started crying and was terribly upset and worried.
"I tried to reassure her, telling her it was just a precaution but it was a very difficult time for her – and for Dave, too. My husband doesn’t show emotion on the outside but I know he feels everything on the inside."
Fortunately, Jay was given the all clear by the doctors after the operation and that will is locked away in a drawer, hopefully irrelevant for a good few decades at least.
"Until two years pass, there’s still a chance the cancer might come back so I have that hanging over me," says Jay.
"The surgeons are confident it shouldn’t happen and say they did a good clean up job on me but you never know.
"I know I’m lucky. If my lymph nodes were full of cancer I’d be having chemotherapy and radiotherapy right now and be very ill.
"Instead, I’m back in Fizz mode, with weeks of gigs ahead and a Christmas album coming out. It could have been so much worse."
