The panic attack that nearly derailed Manu Vatuvei's winning DWTS performance

This story was originally published by Woman's Day and is republished with permission. When this year's Dancing with the Stars winner Manu Vatuvei accepted the coveted mirror ball trophy under a shower of golden confetti, audiences saw him beam. But no-one knew that just moments before stepping out to perform his emotional last dance at the grand finale, the father-of-four suffered a panic attack. "I was about to dance this story I really wanted to tell and it was important to me," explains the 33-year-old former Warriors player, aka "The Beast". "I was panicking and just thinking I couldn't do it, and Loryn was trying to calm me down." READ MORE: * #PG2020: Patrick Gower says he's keen for Dancing with the Stars next year * Dancing with the Stars: How dancing helped Manu Vatuvei heal after injury halted his career * Dancing with the Stars' Manu Vatuvei choreographed the winning routine * Dancing With the Stars recap - The Grand final shocks and surprises, but delivers tears Loryn Reynolds, 23, his devoted dance partner on Three's hit reality series, tried to talk Manu through the anxiety, but it wasn't until he started practising their ballroom-inspired dance set to Everybody Wants to Rule the World that the panic began to subside. "It started making me feel better, just focusing on the dancing, and it got me out of that head space," reveals Manu. "That's what dancing has done for me. I never knew it would have such a massive impact and it's where I find my comfort now." The captivating dance – partly choreographed by Manu and receiving a perfect judges' score of 30 – represented his setback in rugby league two years ago. At the time, he was playing for the Salford Red Devils in England, but he had to return home early because of a career-ending Achilles injury. "I pitched the story idea to Loryn, and she encouraged me to choreograph the first part and just follow what I feel," says the dance champ, who played with the Warriors for 13 years. "The rugby ball at the start symbolised how happy I was playing league. When things went wrong, I couldn't go back and had to look towards the future and find something else I was really passionate about. That ended up being dancing." Two days before Manu won against DWTS runner-up Laura Daniel, 29, there were concerns whether he'd even make the grand finale because of sudden illness. "My body shut down on me – it's happened in the past with league, where I get achy and start spewing. It's pretty much burn-out," explains Manu, who married wife Jenny almost 10 years ago. "I was driving when I felt it come on and made it home just in time." Instead of appearing on Three's The Project that evening, he took painkillers and slept it off, saying, "It was good timing because it had gone by Sunday." Manu went on to dance his heart out for the charity KidsCan – as well as for his excited daughters Makayla, 12, Savannah, eight, Eva, five, and three-year-old Aaliyah, who screamed the house down when he won. While

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