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Amy Dowden, who recovered from breast cancer therapy earlier this 12 months, has revealed that she lately skilled a well being scare ahead of her return to Strictly Come Dancing.
In May 2023, the Welsh skilled dancer was identified with an “aggressive” type of stage three breast cancer discovering a lump in her breast the day earlier than her Maldives honeymoon with fellow professional dancer Ben Jones. She underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy and fertility treatment in these 9 months and was finally informed she had “no evidence of disease” in February.
That journey is documented in a brand new movie, Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me, which follows Dowden from the start of her analysis as she navigates every stage of her therapy.
However, on the finish of the documentary, when Dowden finds out she shall be well enough to return to Strictly in September after a 12 months off from work, she goes to the hospital for a routine MRI scan and receives worrying information from her physician.
In footage recorded completely for the documentary, docs inform Dowden they’ve detected “a few little dots” within the scan that recommend calcification and a “change occurring in the breast”. Her physician warned her it may very well be an indication of breast cancer returning.
Dowden, who took the information in her stride, then underwent a biopsy, and informed the cameras afterwards: “I’m feeling really anxious and worried because it obviously brought back memories of everything I went through a year ago.”
“But I’ve just gotta try and remain positive and not take myself to those worrying places.”
In the subsequent clip, Dowden and her husband Ben are given the welcome information that the biopsy confirmed benign adjustments – there was no cancer detected.
“When the consultant told us there was no evidence of disease, it felt surreal,” Dowden exclaimed. “I’m so relieved. It feels like I’m set free.”
In one other clip, Dowden’s mom informed the digicam: “We just want to dance and sing and tell everyone about it.”
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Reflecting on the toughest 12 months of her life, Downden mentioned: “In the past year, I’ve had a mastectomy, fertility treatment, chemotherapy, sepsis, blood clots, a broken foot and finally it’s time for me to get back on that dancefloor.”
The dancer, who first joined the forged of Strictly in 2017, was too sick to compete in final 12 months’s collection of the present, however would usually make shock appearances on the present – just like the time she arrived in a shiny robe and read out the terms and conditions for the public voting.
When Dowden’s identify was announced in the 2024 line-up for Strictly, she celebrated the information and informed her followers that she couldn’t wait to be again doing what she loves probably the most: dancing.
“My heart is so happy,” she wrote. “The best team on and off the dance floor. Feel blessed and more excited than ever. Bring it on!”
Professional dancer Vito Coppola, who may even dance on this 12 months’s competitors, wrote on Instagram about how a lot the Strictly forged had “missed” Dowden within the earlier season.
“Beautiful Amy we are so happy to have you back. We have missed you. Be ready because I am going to lift you very high,” he mentioned. “We love you and I am sure I can speak for all us when I say that it was not same without you.”
Dowden’s good friend and fellow Strictly professional Diane Buswell mentioned she was “so happy” to have the dancer again on the dancefloor the place she “belongs”.
Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me airs on BBC One on Monday 26 August at 8pm. She will seem on this 12 months’s 20th anniversary series of Strictly Come Dancing.
