Brave Amy Dowden's cancer journey in full from first symptoms to next steps

20 October 2023 , 11:00

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Amy wants to raise as much as awareness of breast cancer as possible to 'get everyone to check their chest' (Image: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)

Beautiful Amy Dowden has graced our screens on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing since making her debut in 2017 as the show's first Welsh professional dancer - and has gone on to partner with McFly's Tom Fletcher and EastEnders' James Bye. But sadly, the 33-year-old star has been forced to take a break from the current series to focus on her health and future.

In May of this year, Amy announced she had devastatingly been diagnosed with breast cancer, but from the get-go, she expressed her wish to be straight back on the dancefloor as soon as she was better. Writing on Instagram, she said: "Hey all, I've got some news which isn't easy to share. I've recently been diagnosed with breast cancer but I'm determined to get back on that dance floor before you know it." Amy, who is married to co-star Ben Jones, has since shared her ongoing journey with fans.

The Strictly star was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump on her chest (PA)

She has kept fans updated with her ongoing treatment and chemotherapy battles (amy_dowden/Instagram)

The dancer has spoken about the first moment she discovered a lump in her breast, one day before her honeymoon to the Maldives with Ben in April. She had only just begun checking herself, following a charity trek with the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! "I was in the shower and I felt this hard lump in my right breast. I was in shock; I checked again," she told HELLO! Magazine. After realising the lump had grown while on holiday, Amy went to see her GP and was sent for an emergency referral. It was then she was suddenly diagnosed with aggressive stage three breast cancer. "You just don't ever think it's going to happen to you. I hadn't thought it was possible to get breast cancer at my age," she continued, explaining that her mum had breast cancer in her fifties.

That month, Amy underwent a mastectomy and surgeons removed three tumours and further cancer specks, plus some lymph nodes from her right breast. But days afterwards, doctors discovered a second type of breast cancer in the tissue they removed, plus more tumours, including one close to her chest, and specks in her other breast. It came as a huge shock to Amy. She was advised to have chemotherapy, but her first reaction was to refuse it. "I thought that's Strictly with a partner wiped out, that's my hair gone, that's my life gone. I was like, I don't want to do that," she told the Mirror. While her surgeon kept telling her she could "dance forever and ever afterwards", Amy was adamant she didn't want to do it - until her former dance teacher stepped in.

She made the decision to shave her head last month and roped in her family and friends to help (Instagram)

She is over half way through chemo now and 'can see the finish line', which is hopefully November (Daily Mirror)

Amy was undergoing IVF to create and freeze embryos at the time, hoping she and Ben might still have children. "She gave me tough love and said, 'What's the point of these embryos if you're not going to have chemo? Because you won't be around to have these babies anyway'," Amy said. She finally decided chemo was right. But sadly, her first and second cycles didn't go to plan, resulting in emergency hospital stays and life-threatening complications. First came sepsis, then blood clots. "They said my blood pressure was that low my vital organs would have started failing," Amy said of the first cycle. "We met the paramedics a week later and they said if I had gone to bed that night I might not have woken up the next morning."

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Assured by her oncologist that she had been unlucky, Amy pressed ahead with her second cycle of chemo, only to be faced again by terrifying circumstances. "I got blood clots, I ended up back in hospital," she explained, adding that it was "frightening". Amy recovered and as chemo continued, her hair began falling out at home, which was a horrific experience for her. "I found losing my hair really traumatic and it didn't matter how much I prepared for it I couldn't even brush my own hair in the end I couldn't even look in the mirror in the end because I was bald in top," she said.

Amy is determined to get back on the dance floor and is feeling 'strong and positive' (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)

In September, she made the decision to shave her head and filmed it to post on Instagram. "We all did it together, my friends and family got together, we tried to make it as fun as possible," Amy explained. "They inspired me and I want to use my platform to give others the courage and strength they need." Amy has kept the hairs in a small plastic IKEA bag and isn't really sure what to do with them. "Maybe I'll chuck it away when we do the 'ring the bell' party," she said.

She will hopefully ring the bell on the hospital ward in early November, at the end of her chemotherapy treatment, if there are no setbacks. On Strictly's It Takes Two a fortnight ago, she shared an update on her treatment after reaching a momentous milestone. "Chemo again tomorrow, session six. I am over halfway and I can see the finish line," she said. "But not going to lie, it is tough but I am feeling strong and positive and I just want to raise as much awareness as I possibly can and get everyone to check their chest."

Nia Dalton