I wholeheartedly agree. Its going to be impossible for the judges or the public to view Anastacia in the same light as the other contestants - if the judges give her high marks they will be molly-coddling her, if they give her low marks then there will be outrage as they are not being sympathetic to her condition. Its become a completely impossible situation to deal with, without changing the whole 'feel good' atmosphere of the show.

I'm also sick of being reminded that she is donating her fee to charity, even it being mentioned in the statement confirming she will dance on Saturday. It just smacks of wanting to get votes regardless of the reason.

No. Talk about publicising your charity of choice! Very different.

Fair enough people who feel Sunday's decision was unfair on Melvin, they have a valid point but most can't do that without deriding Anastacia in one form or another. Yes, they are linked but she did not make the decision.

Well said, Poppy. Not wanting my Saturday night light entertainment dominated by cancer does not mean that:

1. I don't like Anastacia or support her fight
2. I am not supportive of breast cancer awareness

It simply means that having or having had cancer does not give you a god given right to be judged by different standards or expect preferential treatment - other than in a medical sense. I stopped watching BGT and X-Factor because I got fed up hearing people's sob stories. Now SCD is at it and I hate it.

Hear hear.

Tuffers actually had his operation filmed, didn't he?

No, I've already said elsewhere that posters such as Ann Dancer made the case for her withdrawal really well.

It is specifically the rancour of response that I'm calling small-minded

Telling the whole world how much money you donate to charity or that you are donating your fee is NOT publicising your charity, there is no need to make this public. You can raise awareness without doing that so in my opinion it is saying look at how much money I am giving aren't I great.

I can't stand people who do this in any walk of life. Everyone has their own charities they support but all we are hearing about on Strictly is the charity Anastacia supports which is unfair on the other contestants.

I doubt the whole world watch Strictly but if you want to publicise a charity what better way to do it than on prime time tv and associated media.

Should Strictly not have mentioned Sports Relief and CIN when they did those for charity?

I totally agree Ann Dancer's post was by far the best one of the hundreds I have read on here, it was excellent and sums up exactly how I feel.

I think people are becoming fed up with the feeling from some posters that you can't criticise someone who has had cancer which is making the tone of the posts more acerbic.

I can only speak for myself and my issue is the determination of a few to blame her for the producers' decision and imply that she is more or less making it all up.

Surely you can see the difference between a programme being linked to a specific charity as opposed to the individual charities that contestants support being given publicity and in this case only one contestant? I would imagine every other person taking part in Strictly supports one or more charities yet they aren't getting the chance to raise awareness and publicise their chosen charities it because that is not what the show is about, it's an entertainment show. Viewers would get fed up if every contestant was talking about the charities they support yet we have to continually hear about Anastacia giving her fee to charity, I don't want to know that.

I think they would be allowed to do so if they wished.

And talking about a charity is the same be it an individual or a company. I appreciate it may bore you but her airtime is fairly limited along with the others.

It hasn't been mentioned once on the main show or on It Takes Two that she's donating her fee.

And yet, before the series started and the news came out she was donating her fee - she was roundly praised

I personally have never said she is making it all up but I am now somewhat suspicious that she is able to train so quickly after having damaged scar tissue. I don't think we will ever get the correct story about what happened on Saturday night but I do know that she didn't participate in the dance off and as far as I'm concerned it was very unfair to Melvin and shows what sort of a person Anastacia is to not have gracefully withdrawn from the competition, that is what I would have done.

Well I wouldn't have been praising her. Just because that is what other people think it doesn't mean everyone has to agree. I make my own mind up about things and don't follow what everyone else thinks.

When you decease from your partiality to Janette I may listen to you. Otherwise you are snivellingly patronising.

I didn't realise that. Interesting.


You think medical professionals are lying?

I don't think if a programme is raising money for charity is shouldn't be mentioned I just think on Strictly I wouldn't want to hear about every contestants charity they support, it definitely would bore me.

We will have to agree to disagree on this as I am not going to change my opinion about Anastacia.

^^ Precisely what is going to get her voted off next week mark my words. Us Brits don't like being to look like fools.

I am just suspicious about how severe her injuries were on Saturday night that she wasn't able to take part in the dance off yet she can now train with damaged scar tissue surely she won't be able to fully participate in the more energetic dances. The whole thing is a mess as far as I am concerned and she should not still be in the show she should have withdrawn on Saturday.

Who is foreign secretary again?

ETA I just googled his name and position and the second choice offered by the impartial wisdom of Google is:

Boris Johnson foreign secretary why

So subtle, so funny, so Concorde

Have the medical professionals issued a statement?