Who is Dr Punam Krishan? Everything you need to know about the Scottish Strictly Come Dancing 2024 contestant

Strictly Come Dancing will soon return to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, with Scottish radio presenter Dr Punam Krishan among this year’s contestants.

Joining celebrities such as Toyah Willcox, Pete Wick and Nick Knowles on the BBC dancing competition, Dr Krishan will be hoping to impress the judges enough to lift the Glitterball Trophy at the end of the series.

Dr Punam Krishan will compete in Strictly Come Dancing. | PA

Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel-Horwood and Anton Du Beke will all return as judges for the twentieth anniversary of Strictly Come Dancing, as will long time hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

With the new series of Strictly set to debut on September 14, here’s what you need to know about Scotland’s very own Dr Punam Krishan who is set to take to the dancefloor.

Who is Dr Punam Krishan?

Dr Punam Krishan is a Scottish radio broadcaster as well as a practising NHS GP.

In addition to serving those within her community, Dr Krishan is a resident GP on BBC Morning Live and BBC Radio Scotland. The broadcaster has also hosted TV shows and podcasts, alongside writing her own children’s book called How to Be a Doctor and Other Life-Saving Jobs.

Speaking about joining this year’s Strictly line up, she said: “This still doesn’t feel real, I am overjoyed to be a contestant on this year’s show. I have watched Strictly every year with my family and it feels extra special that it’s the 20th year, I can’t believe I will be the one getting Strictly-fied now. This is so out of my comfort zone, but I’m up for the journey and will give it my absolute all.”

Where is Dr Punam Krishan from?

Dr Krishan was born and raised in Glasgow, growing up in a tenement flat in the city alongside her younger sister, parents and extended family.

Her father owned a corner shop in the local area and she has said that she was raised on “curry and ginger (not the root kind!)”.

Her parents moved from Punjab to Scotland in the late 1970s and Dr Krishan attended Hillhead Primary School as a child. She then completed her secondary education at Notre Dame High School, before studying medicine at the University of Glasgow.

In an interview with the Herald, she said: “It was ingrained in us that education was the key to freedom. You were either going to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant or a failure.”

She was inspired by a local doctor in her community to pursue medicine and has been working in the medical field for more than 15 years.

In 2019, Dr Krishan went viral on social media after speaking out about the racism she has experienced as a doctor in Scotland.

In a column for The Scotsman, she wrote: “Having grown up as a second-generation Indian, it becomes easy to detect undertones of racism. It makes you feel horribly uncomfortable and is hard to challenge.

“When my receptionist,
the backbone of our practice, called out an individual who said they didn’t want an ‘Asian doctor’ and that I didn’t ‘look Scottish’ by saying ‘What do Scottish people look like?’, it made me feel incredibly proud.

“To have a Scottish ‘native’ stand shoulder to shoulder and see you as their own, is something I wish my grandad had witnessed. In the 1970s, establishing life here wasn’t easy for him.”

She has previously spoken out about how she was impacted by burnout which led her to becoming a locum GP.

Dr Punam Krishan’s husband and family

Dr Krishan is married to Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the Scottish Conservative health spokesperson and MSP for Glasgow. The couple share two children, their son Aanish and daughter Ellora.

Strictly Come Dancing will be released on on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on from Saturday, September 14.