Clara Amfo wants to win Strictly in memory of her dad who died 5 years ago

Strictly newcomer Clara Amfo will be dad dancing with a difference when she takes to the famous ballroom floor next month.

The Radio 1 DJ will be aiming to win in memory of the father whose sudden death turned her world upside down.

Clara, 36, describe’s micro-biologist Emmanuel’s heart attack five years ago as “the worst day of my life”.

She was in Paris about to do a half marathon when she had a dreadful feeling something terrible was about to happen.

“That morning I felt compelled to call him. I then looked at my phone and saw all these missed calls from my sister,” she said.

“In that moment I thought, ‘I bet my dad has died’. I knew I needed to answer the phone but I really didn’t want to.

I answered and my sister just wailed. Her cry was so visceral and guttural.

“I said ‘Susan, what? what?” I had to hear her say it. She said: ‘Dad has died’, and I screamed. I’ve never had such a deep ­reaction as I had that day.”

Clara started her career at KISS FM, before landing a spot on the BBC’s 1Xtra then moving to Radio 1 and taking over Fearne Cotton’s mid-morning show.

Her dad had come from Ghana in the 1970s with only £25 in his pocket and first lived in Eltham, south-east London, which she says was “notoriously not very welcoming for immigrants.”

Emmanuel moved to Kingston, Surrey, and studied to become a microbiologist. Clara said he had a big love of dancing – and for his little daughter too.

“He’d always get me a big card on my birthday and write a lot in it that cut me deep. He said, ‘Clara, you are the glue of our family’. That was his way of expressing love.”

After his death, single Clara had a string of bad relationships.

“I have wondered if losing him has affected my dating life,” she told the Daddy Issues podcast. “I’ve met some d***heads in the last two to three years.

“I had to snap out of ‘why did these men treat me so badly’. You have to retrace your steps through life and understand why you allowed people to treat you like this. Learning about grief made me realise why I attracted certain people into my life.”

Yet despite all her poor dating experiences, Clara is still looking for love – and admits having the hots for sporty fit men.

Other celebs in the line-up are comic Bill Bailey, Olympian Nicola Adams, Caroline Quentin, singer Max George, EastEnders’ Maisie Smith, ex MP Jacqui Smith, former NFL star Jason Bell, TV host JJ Chalmers, Made in ­Chelsea’s Jamie Lang, Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh and YouTuber Harvey Cantwell.