The 35-year-old dancer said her father is recovering well after being rushed to hospital for open heart surgery

Dianne Buswell opened up about her father’s healthDianne Buswell opened up about her father’s health (Image: Karwai Tang, WireImagevia Getty Images)

Dianne Buswell has spoken candidly about her father’s heart surgery after a challenging year-and-a-half. The Strictly dancer, 35, revealed that despite his hospitalisation, her dad was ‘up and walking around the ward like a champion’, showcasing his resilience.

“My poor dad has had a tough 18 months but in true Buswell style has shown strength and resilience,” Dianne told her 1.1million Instagram followers yesterday. “And my beautiful mum who has been the saviour in it all she is by his side 24/7 and has been a little trooper you are one of a kind mum.

“Love you both and I feel so lucky I was able to be here with you both.” While Dianne lives near Brighton in the UK with her partner Joe Sugg, she has been grounded in Perth, Australia, amid a flurry of family events.

Speaking yesterday on Winning Isn’t Everything, a podcast she shares with Chris McCausland, Dianne said that her flight back has been cancelled three times. Right now, she’s staying at a hotel across from the hospital where her father is being cared for.

“My flight has been changed three times now to come home, ok,” she said. “And in this short space of time that I have been [on my holiday]… I’ve been to a wedding, I’ve been to a funeral, I’ve been to a christening, I’ve been to intensive care unit wards numerous amounts of times, we’ve been nominated for a BAFTA…

“There’s been so many ups and downs in this short space of time that it’s been pretty intense. So, I’m still in Perth, I’m actually in a hotel room at the moment literally 500 metres away from the Perth hospital. The reason I’m here is because my dad’s in there.”

Dianne’s father was taken to hospital for open-heart surgery after routine check-ups revealed problems with his heart. Subsequent tests uncovered a dangerous blockage in his main artery – a potentially fatal issue if not addressed.

She continued: “It’s a blessing in disguise, it’s one of those things that you think, it was completely found as well just through one of his scans when he had his cancer diagnosis. He still has to go for all these scans, you know, for his check-ups.

“And it was just through one of those that they said, ‘I think you might want to go check your heart out because there’s something there that we can see.’ Anyway, next minute, he’s having his appointment, I go with him, then the next minute, they thought they had to fly him to Perth, Chris, in like an air ambulance.

“It was getting intense. I was like, ‘Listen, my dad’s scared of planes, he’s really scared of them, there is no way we are getting in an air ambulance.’ So, they waited for an actual ambulance to come and sent him up to Perth. The next thing was getting ready to have an operation.”

Dianne stressed that her father is now doing well, and even doctors are surprised at the rate of his recovery. “He’s doing well, everyone; he’s doing very well,” she said.

“First and foremost, I’m going to put that out there because we’re very happy about this news that he is in recovery, and the doctors think he is doing great.

“Even, like, they wanted to know what he did for a living. They were like, ‘Surely, he used to be an iron man or he used to do something’, because they can’t believe how fit he is.”