Strictly star Amy Dowden shares emotional health update on Stand Up To Cancer after ‘toughest year of her life’
STRICTLY star Amy Dowden shared an emotional health update on Stand Up To Cancer after ‘toughest year of her life’.
The dancer – who revealed she has stage three breast cancer back in May – chatted about her diagnosis with host Davina McCall on the charity’s fundraising special tonight.
Amy, 33, underwent a mastectomy a month after her diagnosis and was later told that doctors had found cancer elsewhere in her body.
The star then started chemotherapy and has her last session next week.
Amy told Davina: “Today is a good day. I’ve got my last chemo session on Thursday! Ring that chemo bell.
“It’s been the toughest year of my life.
“I’m just really hoping with the surgery I’ve already had, and the chemo, I’ve done enough.”
Davina asked how the treatment has been and how it has impacted her.
Amy added: “It’s been tough. I’ve had sepsis, blood clots, I’ve had to have hormone treatment, then being put into menopause.
“When I sat in that room and the doctor said to me Amy you’ve got cancer, that was one stab, then ‘what is your fertility plan?’…
“Because I’ve got an oestrogen fed cancer and they need to shut my ovaries down basically.
“My husband is next to me, we’ve only been married a couple of months, it’s just heartbreaking, it’s something I never knew.
“The impact emotionally.
“It’s been so tough.”
Amy pleaded with viewers to check themselves and get to know their own chests.
“If you know your breasts, you’ll know any changes,” she said.
“Go and get checked straight away. Doesn’t matter how small or if you’re unsure.
“Just book an appointment with your GP.
“I just want to say the NHS have been incredible.”
Strictly fans were delighted when Amy made a surprise appearance on the show last month amid her cancer battle.
Her illness forced her to pull out of the programme, but appeared on the dance floor in October.
Taking to X – formerly Twitter – to share their delight at Amy being back on screens, one said: “Pleased to see Amy, she looks amazing glad she’s on the mend.”
A second posted: “I just LOVE seeing Amy back on #Strictly.
Earlier this month she revealed she almost DIED after her chemo caused a terrifying collapse.
Speaking to The Mirror, she explained: “After both my first cycles I developed the life-threatening side-effects that can come with chemo, so I had it all in the first month.”
She continued: “I had a temperature and didn’t realise the severity of having a temperature.
“I stood up, collapsed, Mum rang the emergency number and they said ‘phone an ambulance immediately’.”
Amy, who had developed an infection, went into septic shock – with her blood pressure so low her organs could’ve started to fail.
Explaining what happened, she recalled: “I had severely low blood pressure, a low heart rate, I wasn’t passing urine for 14 hours, my infection markers were at dangerous levels. I had three different types of antibiotics and I finally responded to the third type.
“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.”
After her second round of chemo she developed clots which she said left her ‘frightened’.
Amy joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 and quickly became a fan-favourite.
