‘Anything can happen – emotions are high'

Maya Jama on the ups and downs of hosting Stand Up 2 Cancer and her delight at working alongside her idol

- JENNIFER RODGER

Celebrity Juice panellist Maya Jama tops off a great year by joining Davina McCall, Alan Carr and The Last Leg’s Adam Hills for the annual comedy fundraising night Stand Up To Cancer on Friday.

She’s been busy with Juice, plus survival show Foxy’s Fearless 48 Hours, Soccer Aid 2021, Crouchy’s Year-Late Euros and hosting Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star. But even with all this on her plate, the 27-year-old admits that SU2C is special. “It was amazing doing it last year. I feel like that was one of my first big, proper main channel events and I was so nervous but so excited,” Maya tells new.

She’ll co-host an evening of entertainment that includes an episode of Celebrity Gogglebox, plus appearances by Olivia Colman, Usain Bolt, the cast of Derry Girls, Jack Black, the Jonas Brothers and Roman Kemp.

Here, Maya tells us how she controls her emotions on the night and explains her enduring admiration for Davina McCall…

Hi Maya. You’re back doing Stand Up To Cancer. How was the experience first time around?

It was amazing. I feel like that was one of my first big, proper main-channel events and I was so nervous but so excited. It’s all over in the blink of an eye. You have so much time preparing – you wind yourself up in your mind about how things are going to go and you hope to raise as much money as possible and then literally, like that, it’s done. But it’s such an incredible event – I had an incredible time and I’m super, super happy to be back.

Can you relax a bit more having done it before?