Victoria Derbyshire breaks down in tears during Real Full Monty burlesque performance

'This is so out of my comfort zone. God, this is day one, what the heck'

The Real Full Monty: Ladies' Night took an emotional turn during the show's first rehearsal.

Following the initial men's edition, Ladies' Night gathered together eight female celebrities ready to bare all in the name of charity, performing a special striptease in Sheffield - where The Full Monty film takes place - to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Many of the contestants had personal connections to the cause. Loose Women panellist Colleen Nolan, for example, had three of her sisters suffer breast cancer, while Hi-de-Hi! actor Ruth Madoc is a cancer survivor.

Broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire had an elective mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago and the experience soon, unsurprisingly, turned emotional for her.

After meeting with performers from the Moulin Rouge, Derbyshire confessed she no longer wanted to take part in the performance, breaking down in tears during an initial rehearsal.

"This is so out of my comfort zone. God, this is day one, what the heck," she said. "I haven't cried for ages about having cancer, or my body or whatever."

Former Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton underwent a double mastectomy after discovering she was carrying the breast and ovarian cancer gene and similarly found herself reliving her own trauma.

“I feel really disconnected from my breasts,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re mine.”

However, all the contestants eventually braved the stage, performing their routine, set to The Greatest Showman's "This is Me" in front of an audience of 2,000.

“This process has made me happy,” Derbyshire said after the performance. “Tears are about to come but they’re happy tears.”

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