SHE hit the headlines when she fell off the stage while performing on BBC1’s So You Think You Can Dance?

But now mother-of-one Fabia Cerra from Centaury Place, Greater Leys, Oxford, is to strut her stuff with the likes of comics Dawn French and Sarah Millican in the first British Plus Size Awards.

The size 18-20 burlesque dancer, who reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent, said: “I was stunned to learn I had been nominated, especially when I realised I was on the shortlist alongside people like Dawn French, who I really look up to. I’m still a little shocked, but now I’m also very excited because it’s another major milestone after everything that has happened to me.”

Miss Cerra, who has an eight-year-old son Leone, hit the headlines when she performed a raunchy striptease routine for judges on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.

The 39-year-old’s efforts, including a re-enactment of the famous Flashdance routine, took her to the semi-finals before she was knocked out.

In 2010 she hit the headlines again when she fell off the stage while performing on BBC1’s So You Think You Can Dance?

The accident was seen by 7.6m people but Miss Cerra called it ‘fate’ after the fall miraculously corrected three slipped discs she was due to have operated on.

She said: “Since Britain’s Got Talent my life has been great.

I am working for a company called Burlesque Baby, teaching burlesque to hen parties in Oxfordshire.

“Last year I was asked to perform my burlesque act at the first Miss Plus Size International beauty pageant in London.

“This year I am performing at the pageant again, and last month was invited to meet the contestants at a ‘boot camp’ in Somerset, where I taught the girls about catwalk and burlesque, which was fantastic.

“Then I found out I had also been nominated for a British Plus Size Award, which will be presented during the pageant, which was just the icing on the cake.”

Miss Cerra is also up against male comedians Michael McIntyre and Alan Carr in the Best Entertainer category of the British Plus Size Awards in London next November.

She continued: “I don’t think I will win. That would be crazy. Most people in Oxford have been really supportive since I did Britain’s Got Talent. Of course there are some who mock. But I’m happy. I’m proud to be encouraging women to love their curves.”

Founder of the British Plus Size Awards, Linda Koch, said: “Fabia is an inspiration to women everywhere.

You can vote in the British Plus Size Awards at britishplussizeawards.co.uk