When Amy Dowden turned 34 this month, she spent her birthday in the garden, surrounded by family and friends. When she turned 33 last year, she spent her birthday in hospital, surrounded by doctors. The Strictly Come Dancing professional, forced by a cancer diagnosis to drop out of her dream job, was in the middle of chemotherapy and being treated for sepsis. When she skips once again down the Strictly stairs next month, with her chic new pixie cut, she really will have been on that most abused of words: a journey.
“Many a time I’d just sit in the shower and cry,” she says, reflecting on the past year. “I felt I’d lost who I was. Not dancing on Strictly was tough. It was