‘I was fit and healthy when my lungs collapsed aged 18 – two surgeries later and I won a national dance competition’

A “fit and healthy” teenager whose lungs partially collapsed after a dance class said it felt like a “really sharp cocktail stick” was suddenly stabbing him in the back – but after a long period of recovery, he has not let it hold him back from his dance career.

James Airey, 19, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, had just finished a ballet class on March 25 last year when he said he felt a “sudden onset of sharp back pain and difficulty breathing”, leading him to believe he was having a heart attack.

He was rushed to Leeds General Hospital and had an X-ray before doctors diagnosed James with a partially collapsed left lung aged 18.

The condition is also known as a spontaneous pneumothorax and it is four times more likely to affect men than women, most often in their 20s and people who are tall and thin, according to the NHS.

James is six feet four inches tall and described himself as “skinny”.

After he was taken to hospital on March 25, James was told his condition should “resolve without any treatment” but he suffered another pneumothorax on April 9 – on his right lung this time, but before his left lung had fully reinflated.

This led to surgery on just his right lung on April 15 to prevent recurrent collapsed lungs, as James was told it was “too risky” to operate on both lungs at the same time.

After a “pretty awful” recovery, James said he suffered another pneumothorax on his left lung on June 14, resulting in a follow-up surgery six days later.

James said he was able to get back to dance training within two weeks of his second surgery, before he started at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in September 2025.

He went on to compete in and win the Red Bull Dance Your Style UK National Final on May 30 this year, advancing to the World Final in October 2026.

“I just felt emotional and I started crying,” James told PA Real Life, of the moment he was announced as the dance competition winner.

“I spoke on the microphone and said thank you to everyone who supported me with this real milestone.

“I’ve gone through a lot and I’ve made it out the other side.”

Dancing has always been a part of James’s life: His parents met at a salsa class, and he started classes aged six.

He said he learnt “all the different styles” throughout his childhood, such as ballroom, latin and ballet, but he particularly loved popping – a funk-style street dance defined by quick muscle contractions.

Known professionally as Slayer, James said he won dancing competitions throughout his childhood and has always been “fit and healthy” as a result.

But after one particular ballet class at 9pm on March 25 2025, he was walking to the train station with a friend when he felt a sudden pain.

James said: “It was really sharp, like a cocktail stick being stabbed into my upper left back.

“It was causing me to push my chest forward and I was walking bent over.

“I thought I was having a heart attack.”

After getting to the train station, James and his friend spoke to a staff member before they called a taxi to Leeds General Hospital.

James was admitted and had an X-ray, where it was confirmed by 3am that his left lung partially collapsed.

Shortly after, James said the pain “subsided” and he felt “a lot lighter” so he was advised to monitor it at home for two weeks and that it should eventually resolve itself.

Within three days, James said his pain completely subsided and he had follow-up X-rays to check everything was fine over two weeks, but then he suddenly felt “more severe” pain on his right side on April 9.

“Both my lungs now aren’t functioning properly… so there was a lot of mental fear there,” James said.

James had a chemical pleurodesis surgery at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds on his right collapsed lung on April 15, which aimed to seal the space between the outer lining of the lungs and the chest wall to stop fluid or air from building up.

But James said his body had a reaction to pain relief medication he was given so he began “constantly throwing up”, adding that that was “one of the worst parts” of his recovery.

After three days, James was discharged and said it was “too painful” to lie flat so he had to sit upright at an angle for weeks, but his mother, who is a nurse, helped throughout his recovery.

It took James up to a month to properly get back into dance training, but on June 14, he suffered another pneumothorax on his left lung.

“It was my most painful one,” James said.

This resulted in a second surgery on June 20 that James said he was “more prepared” for, especially after he requested alternative pain relief medication so he did not experience vomiting again.

James was discharged after two days and said he was walking the next day because “that’s what we knew that I needed to do” to aid in his recovery.

This time, just two weeks after his surgery, James was back to regular training, motivated by the fact he had been accepted into the dance school, Rambert, starting in September.

Within four weeks, he was back to competing in dance battles and competitions, culminating in James entering the Red Bull Dance Your Style UK National Final on May 30 this year.

Freestyling to top 40 radio songs, James made it through the first two rounds of the top 16, then the top eight, and the top four.

For the final head-to-head over three rounds, James danced to Raye’s song ‘Where is my Husband’ and then waited for the crowd to vote for him by holding up red-coloured bracelet lights.

James said: “The announcer said three, two, one and then I looked out into the crowd and I saw the (red) colours.

“I just cried,” he added.

James said he still feels “niggles” in his lungs on a daily basis but it usually “subsides quite quickly” and he is more aware of what is a dangerous amount of pain.

Looking back on how far he has come, James said: “I feel good and I feel well.

“(I want to) help others to show that, even if you’re not wanting to be a dancer, if you’re going through this, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

James will be representing the UK at the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final 2026 is in Zurich on October 24: redbull.com/gb-en/events/red-bull-dance-your-style-world-final-2026-zurich