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My secret heartache

Country music star Adam Brand talks to Ray Chesterton about the tragedy that helped propel him to the grand final of DWTS.

Four months ago, Adam Brand really couldn’t dance to save his life and knew he was probably going to embarrass himself, but he didn’t hesitate to step up to the challenge of Dancing With The Stars.

Adam was determined to give it his all because he was dancing for his much-loved nephew Harrison, who lost his life to cancer when he was just two-and-a-half years old. And every time Adam’s army of supporters rang in to vote for him, money was donated to the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia, the charity he nominated to honour Harrison’s memory.

“He was a great little fella and being able to help the CCIA was important,” Adam says. “They do wonderful work in very difficult circumstances.”

The country singer vowed to give it “my best shot” when he accepted the invitation to join the DWTS team.

“I didn’t care if they dressed me up in high heels and made me wear lipstick and a tutu, I thought, I’m just going to go for it,” Adam laughs.

His determination to embrace ballroom dancing paid off when he survived six weeks of intensive tuition — and then the 10 weeks of exhaustive competition to make it to Sunday night’s grand finale, in which he was up against Today Tonight’s Matt White and The Morning Show’s Kylie Gillies.

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