BBC Strictly Come Dancing’s Jamie Borthwick asks himself tormenting question every, single day

Strictly’s Jamie Borthwick suffers with a phobia and despite undergoing therapy, he fears it will never leave him.

Strictly Come Dancing contestant Jamie Borthwick is a hot favourite on the BBC talent show. He is paired with Michelle Tsiakkas and it was only last year that he took part in the Strictly Christmas special, which he won with professional dancer Nancy Xu.

Despite that he insists he’s forgotten everything he was taught as training was only two weeks long. “I’ll be honest, it feels like so much has happened since then I’ve kind of forgotten everything,” he said. “I’m hoping it’ll be like riding a bike and that it’ll come back, but I’ve kind of forgot most of it.”

Jamie, who turned 30 this year, is best known by TV fans for his role as Jay Brown in EastEnders. He joined the iconic soap when he was just 12 and although he has always appeared to be in perfect health, Jamie has been suffering with a debilitating health condition since he was a teenager.

“I have terrible health anxiety, I’m a massive hypochondriac,” he revealed in an interview with the Mirror earlier this year . The disorder causes him to doubt his well-being all the time and ask himself the same thing each morning: “Every day, I wake up and go, ‘what’s wrong with me today?'” he admitted.

The problem began with teenage emetophobia, which is a fear of being sick, and it developed into more health issues. Jamie has had therapy for the condition and learnt ways to cope with his anxiety but he fears he will never be totally cured from it. “The therapy sessions have really helped me,” he revealed. “But I don’t think these things ever fully leave you. You just become equipped to be able to deal with it. I’m far from perfect, but I’m certainly in a much better place than I was 10 years ago.”

As well as his anxiety battles, Jamie has experienced bouts of prostatitis – an inflamed prostate due to an infection. “I was really worried and health anxiety kicking in, because I thought I had prostate cancer. Thankfully, I just had an infection,” he said.

Although it wasn’t anything serious for the star, he is at an increased risk of developing the disease because his dad Simon was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was devastated when his mum and dad sat him down to tell him the news, especially since his uncle Charlie and a cousin were also going through treatment.

Thankfully though his dad’s cancer was caught early and he was given the green light. “The surgery went well, the doctors were fantastic, and thankfully he’s been through his checks and it’s all clear, we’re all good.” His uncle has also recovered. “I’m one of the very lucky ones. There’s a lot of people who sadly don’t have the same news as me,” he said.

Because of his experience with the disease, Jamie ran the London Marathon in April this year for Prostate Cancer UK alongside co-star Emma Barton, who plays Honey Mitchell. The pair took part in character as Jay and Honey and were filmed for scenes that were included in EastEnders in memory of Jay’s late wife Lola, ( Danielle Harold ), who died of a brain tumour in an award-winning plot last year.