A Welsh singer and stroke survivor will appear on ITV's brand new musical dating show Romeo and Duet. Nia Phillips from Ammanford will appear alongside host Oti Mabuse to find love through song on the the seven-part prime-time series.
The 23-year-old previously told WalesOnline how she experienced a life-threatening stroke likely to be caused by her contraceptive pill while at university in Surrey in 2019. She explained how singing gave her something positive to focus on while she recovered from her terrifying ordeal.
Speaking in February 2021, Nia said she rang her GP in Surrey after experiencing an excruciating migraine that left her unable to lift her head from her pillow, along with vomiting, blurred vision and extreme light sensitivity. However, she was initially told it was just a hangover - despite having not consumed alcohol the night before. Later, Nia travelled home to Carmarthenshire to be with her mum and was told by a local nurse she was actually suffering from an ear infection.
Read more: Welsh singer and stroke survivor to appear on ITV's brand new musical dating show
The seriousness of Nia's condition was only revealed when a family friend and optician offered to assess her. Nia said: ""The optician noticed some swelling in my brain and sent me straight to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen to be seen out of hours. I will always be so thankful to her because if it wasn't pointed out then who knows what would have happened?
"At the hospital I saw a consultant ophthalmologist. He thought it might have been IIH initially which is pressure on the brain that isn't massively uncommon in my age group so I was then sent for scans." Nia was admitted to hospital that night and had an MRI scan and ultrasound of her eyeball the next morning.
"They came back and said: 'After seeing your MRI scan we can see a blood clot on the brain'. They instantly injected me with heparin to thin my blood as soon as possible," she said. "The nurses were lush and moved me into a side room – I think because the news was so shocking at my age and because I was so light sensitive and the room was darker."
Nia said she was in complete shock at the news and it didn't really sink in at the time. It is still something she is trying to process. She added: "I think I could feel the emotion coming. I heard what they told me and I was thinking: 'Oh my God'. I was scared and worried. But I didn't cry because it didn't properly sink in. I was just completely numb and it felt a bit like an out of body experience."
Since her life-changing experience, talented Nia has been sharing videos of herself singing on TikTok and Instagram under the name @niamusic._ On her Instagram page she posted about her debut on the new show and said she felt both "nervous" and "excited" to take part.
Romeo and Duet will air at 7pm from Saturday, April 16. Contestants will have just one song to entice a fellow singleton down from a balcony, when the two will come face-to-face for the first time. For more what's on and food stories from WalesOnline, you can get our newsletter here.
The newly formed couple will then head off on a duet-date to learn a duet, before returning later in the show to perform that number in the ultimate romantic love battle; a singing competition against the other couples to be crowned the winners. The crowd’s chosen couple then get whisked off for another date to see if their love blossoms.
