WHEN Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden was diagnosed with breast cancer, dying was not her biggest fear.
Nor was undergoing chemo, having a mastectomy, battling life-threatening sepsis, undergoing fertility treatment, or shaving off her long blonde hair.
7
Instead it was the thought of losing her job on the BBC One dance show.
Breaking down in tears, Amy revealed: “When I had to tell Strictly, I was asking ‘Can I keep my job?’ because that was the scariest thing.
“To dance at the highest level, you have to be as fit as an athlete.
“I was scared about how treatment would affect my body.
“The doctor told me I was going to need really strong chemo every two weeks, and I needed eight sessions.
“Then I knew that was it — I wasn’t going to be able to dance for months.
“I was gutted. It completely wiped me out for Strictly.
“I was heartbroken because I wanted to be on the dance floor.”
Amy — who reached the Strictly final with CBBC presenter Karim Zeroual in 2019 — took more than a year to make a full recovery after doctors told her she had aggressive stage three cancer in May 2023.
The diagnosis came after she married her pro dance partner Ben Jones in 2022. The couple run the Art In Motion dance school in Cradley Heath, West Mids.
Fighting the disease prevented her from dancing last year, so she was elated to be given the all-clear to grace the dance floor again this series. Now she has charted her journey back in a new documentary.
She said: “At the beginning of 2023 I felt like everything I’d ever hoped for was falling into place.
“Ben and I got married, I was teaching at the dance school, I was going to be back on Strictly and all of a sudden my everyday life changed.
“To be 32 with breast cancer, you’re thinking, ‘This doesn’t look good — the outlook doesn’t look good’.
7
7
“The first time I felt the lump in my breast was the day before we went on honeymoon,
“I just knew, I felt sick to my stomach.
“I saw the doctor, and he told me they’d found something. I said, ‘Is it cancer?’ and he said, ‘Yes’.
“I think for me, I thought I was safe until my 50s when they start doing my mammograms. I didn’t think it would ever affect me.”
In the hour-long show Strictly Amy: Cancer And Me, which airs on BBC One next week, she takes TV cameras with her as she undergoes a mastectomy, receives her chemotherapy treatments, and has to undergo an egg collection.
But through it all, getting back to Strictly remained Amy’s main focus.
In the hours before her mastectomy, she says: “I have three weeks of resting, going back to my day to day, then six weeks before I can get back to dancing.”
As well as regaining her health, Amy had to come to terms with her changing body.
Rebuilding one of her breasts brought concern about how Strictly’s wardrobe team might help her back into her show costumes.
Sitting down with show co-star Dianne Buswell, Amy says: “Everything has been so fast.
7
7
7
“Literally two weeks from surgery and we’re straight into that whirlwind of emotions, we’re into surgery and accepting a new boob.
“The anxiety I feel is that it’s all happened really quickly.
“I didn’t know what structure we can do with my breast. I didn’t look at my breast for two weeks.
“I had to do it with the nurse, and I was really scared, because what if you don’t like it?” Dianne says: “As dancers, our appearance is a big thing for us — since we’re little we’re so aware of it — so anything that happens physically to our bodies, it plays a mental role.”
It’s part of the reason Amy first tried using a medical cold cap during her chemotherapy treatment in the hope it might save her hair.
The cooling system is used to freeze hair follicles on the head which makes them less likely to fall out, but the device can cause pain, nausea and headaches when worn for up to five hours a day.
For the dancer, it all became too much four weeks into her treatment — and she made the brave decision to ditch the cap and shave her head.
‘I need to take control’
At the same time, she was undergoing the procedure to retrieve her eggs so she could one day start a family.
Amy said: “It was a massive, massive struggle with those fertility weeks but [when it was successful] the relief was just immense.
“I needed to have a shot at something — I needed that bit of hope.
“I was getting sicker and sicker, with terrible ulcers, blood clots and life-threatening sepsis.
“But losing my hair — that’s a massive factor.
“I’m a proper girly girl — I love dressing up and doing the competitions and shows. The way you look, it’s massive.
“I run a dance school with kids. They were going to look at me and instantly know I’m ill.
“You already feel like you have no control, but the one thing I could fight for was my hair.
“But I remember thinking, ‘Why am I putting myself through so many days of watching my hair fall out when I am going to lose it anyway?’ I need to take control.”
The wigs were my safety blanket. I wanted to be able to go out and be Amy, not Amy with cancer.
Amy Dowden
In emotional scenes, Amy gathers with friends and family for the cut, where, fighting back tears, she tells them: “Boob gone, eggs gone. This is the last bit — my hair.”
For weeks, Amy relied on wigs to help her continue to feel “normal”.
She says: “You’ve lost your hair, then you look like a cancer patient, and I didn’t want that.
“The wigs were my safety blanket. I wanted to be able to go out and be Amy, not Amy with cancer.”
What are the signs of breast cancer?
BREAST cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK.
The majority of women who get it are over 50, but younger women and, in rare cases, men can also get breast cancer.
If it’s treated early enough, breast cancer can be prevented from spreading to other parts of the body.
Breast cancer can have a number of symptoms, but the first noticeable symptom is usually a lump or area of thickened breast tissue.
Most breast lumps aren’t cancerous, but it’s always best to have them checked by your doctor. You should also speak to your GP if you notice any of the following:
- a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts
- discharge from either of your nipples (which may be streaked with blood)
- a lump or swelling in either of your armpits
- dimpling on the skin of your breasts
- a rash on or around your nipple
- a change in the appearance of your nipple, such as becoming sunken into your breast
Source: NHS
Amy joined her Strictly friends for two appearances last October and ditched her wig.
She popped up to announce the terms and conditions for the phone vote, and had a ten-second role in the group dance.
She knew to the many millions fighting cancer it would be an important moment of representation, with the “love and support” of her show co-stars.
‘I was heartbroken’
But despite thousands of messages backing the move, in the final weeks of her chemotherapy, Amy reveals she still had to battle cruel trolls online. They branded her a “narcissist” and even made fun of her cancer.
Amy recalls: “Going back to Strictly, I felt welcomed and loved, but I also found it really tough because ultimately I wasn’t dancing.
“I hobbled off-stage and watched all the pros.
“I was heartbroken because that’s where I wanted to be.
“I got so many messages of support — it was really pulling me through. It became like a community of friends online, and I didn’t feel alone.
“I had people on the same timeline as me, and those messages really helped me. I held on to those messages for hope. But with the trolls, I already found it hard to look in the mirror.
“I already felt like everything about me had been stripped away — my identity and all of that.”
I’ve got a new body on that dance floor now. I’ve lost my speed, my stamina, my flexibility.
Amy Dowden
Amy had hoped to continue appearing on the show — but in another cruel blow, she had to withdraw from training in November when she fractured a bone in her foot. Then some abnormalities in her tumour site were uncovered.
But finally in May she was thrilled to be able to tell her fans that she was in remission and the race was on to be ready for Strictly.
Amy is now days away from making her grand return to the ballroom for the series’ 20th anniversary special.
She said: “I’ve got a new body on that dance floor now. I’ve lost my speed, my stamina, my flexibility. My confidence has been knocked a lot, and I doubt myself, even now.
“I’ve had a mastectomy, fertility treatment, chemotherapy, sepsis, blood clots, a broken foot — but finally it’s time for me to be able to get back on that dance floor.
“Dancing is part of who I am. It’s in my blood, and I’m grateful to have the chance to dance again.”
- Strictly Amy: Cancer And Me airs Monday at 8pm on BBC One.