Bucks Fizz's Jay Aston doing 'magnificently well' after tongue reconstruction (2024)

Cheryl Baker has heaped praise on her Bucks Fizz bandmate Jay Aston for how she dealt with a devastating cancer diagnosis.

The singer, 62, shot to fame across the UK and Europe when she won Eurovision 1981 along with bandmates Cheryl, Mike Nolan and Bobby G.

Their track, Making Your Mind Up, saw the four-piece narrowly beat Germany to first place, and went on to become a number one in multiple countries – including, of course, the UK.

Bucks Fizz became household names, and 42 years later Jay, Mike and Cheryl still regularly perform together under the name The Fizz.

However they were not always together, with Jay leaving the band shortly after the devastating coach crash which saw Cheryl break her back and Mike come close to losing his life to a dangerous brain injury.

In a new interview with Metro.co.uk ahead of Eurovision 2023, Cheryl, speaking on behalf of Ice 36, discussed the strong bond she shares with Mike and Jay and revealed they are ‘closer than ever before because we’ve been through an awful lot.’

‘Recently [Jay] had cancer of the [mouth] and had part of her tongue removed,’ she said.

‘Jay is now doing great. [Diagnosis and surgery] was about three years ago.

‘To be a singer and to have half of your tongue removed is such an extraordinary thing to happen. But she’s coped magnificently well, she really has,’ she said with pride.

Jay herself has previously spoken candidly about her diagnosis and recovery from surgery, after undergoing a grueling seven-hour operation to replace her tongue.

Speaking on Lorraine in 2018, she revealed surgeons managed to rebuild her tongue by taking a chunk from her thigh, and inserted the new muscular organ through a hole in her neck.

Jay said she was doing ‘really well,’ and while she had ‘a bit of a lisp’ at the time it was expected to disappear with physiotherapy.

Reflecting on everything the group has been through over the years, Cheryl admitted there’s been ‘a lot of trauma … in Bucks Fizz’s history,’ but added ‘it’s held the three of us together, and we are mates.’

Cheryl and Mike remained close even after she left BucksFizz in 1993 and it would be another 11 years before they worked together again.

‘Jay however, I didn’t see for 23 years,’ she mused.

‘She left Bucks Fizz in 1985 and it was a real dark cloud she left under. We’d had a coach crash, there was a lot of stuff going on in the papers, there was all sorts.

‘We got together again for a television programme called Pop Goes The Band and I didn’t know how I was going to react when I saw her. But my initial reaction … was to give her a hug because we had history – we had all these massive hits, we’d won Eurovision, we’d travelled the world together, we’d been in this awful coach crash. And so I wanted to hug her.

‘This was a girl who was a major part of my life. And ever since then we’ve worked together, the three of us, under the name The Fizz – as we’re not allowed to use the name Buck’s Fizz, which is ridiculous,’ she tutted.

The chart-topper went on to speak about her pride that she, Mike and Jay were still performing together, saying it’s ‘wonderful’ that ‘eighties music is still huge.’]

Even outside of Eurovision week, ‘when everyone wants a slice of us,’ thanks to eighties nights and festivals ‘we’re full-on working all the time.’

‘It keeps you young,’ she beamed. ‘I love it.’

Cheryl Baker’s full interview with Metro.co.uk can be found in upcoming 60 Seconds interview out tomorrow, Thursday 11 May.

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