Singer Anastacia has said her time on Strictly Come Dancing helped her find the “little piece of female” she felt she had lost.

The American star, who had a double mastectomy in a battle against breast cancer, became the sixth celebrity to be voted off the dance floor at the weekend.

Appearing on spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, she said she felt she got everything she needed from the show even though she did not make it all the way to the final.

She told host Zoe Ball: “What I got out of this experience was exactly what I wanted to get – to raise awareness of breast cancer and find my own little piece of female I lost, so it was a total win-win.

“Whenever you go is when you go and you can’t control that, you just do the best you can do.”

Earlier in the series Anastacia tore scar tissue from her operations while learning the salsa and was unable to compete in a dance-off.

At the weekend her Halloween-themed jive did not do enough to impress the judges and the voting public and she was sent home over model Daisy Lowe.

Of her dance, she said: “I don’t think it was really that great. Thank God I have a day job. You have to be real with it, I’m not delusional.”

However, her dance partner Brendan Cole praised Antastacia’s “sheer determination and grit”, with the singer adding: “This show lets people know to move on and embrace all of what life is, that is what I like about what this show represents.”

It Takes Two is on weeknights at 6.30pm on BBC Two.