Strictly’s Amy Dowden ‘holds back tears’ over heartbreaking family admission
The dancer was emotional as she revisited a recent conversation about her journey with cancer, and the uncertainty it has left
Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden(Image: Amy Dowden Instagram)
Amy Dowden has told fans that she was ‘holding back tears’ as she revisited a recent conversation she had about her journey with cancer, and the uncertainty it has left over her desires to start a family.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, who has been a professional dancer on the BBC One dance show since 2017, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. She underwent treatment, a mastectomy and chemotherapy, before undergoing a second following her exit from the dance competition last year.
In an interview with former Busted star Matt Willis on his podcast On The Mend, Amy discussed having to take time off the show while she underwent the gruelling treatment, which continues with a month injection due to being diagnosed with a hormone-fed cancer, before she told there was ‘no evidence of disease’ in February 2024.
Amy said that when she initially returned to the show after treatment: “I’d lost everything as a dancer, my flexibility, my speed – everything I worked 20 years for.”
During the same conversation, the 35-year-old opened up about how her cancer diagnosis has, for now, impacted her and her husband Ben Jones’ plans to start a family, having married shortly before her heartbreaking diagnosis.
Amy opened up to Matt Willis on his podcast, On the Mend(Image: PA)
Going back to the time she was told she had cancer, Amy told Matt: “I’ve had my fair few tough moments growing up with my Crohn’s disease, but obviously recently my breast cancer diagnosis, which came as an absolute shock. I never thought at 32 years old I would be diagnosed with the devastating blow of a cancer diagnosis, but especially breast cancer.
“From that I was literally told the news to watch your fertility plans. I just got married and obviously I’d love the honor of becoming a mum and they said that because I have a hormone fed cancer they needed to be able to put me straight into menopause which was an absolute like, I had my husband with me, I didn’t know what he was thinking at the time and that really hurt. I think that hurt at the time more than the cancer diagnosis really.
“so I literally was told this and I had a masectomy six weeks later. Then I had fertility treatment and was lucky enough to get five embryos. To then start chemotherapy, which was the hardest part of my life and came with so many complications, sepsis to blood clots to breaking my foot, to then thinking, you know, that was it. I’d been through it all. But then it’s that really long tough journey of recovery.”
Amy spoke about wanting to start a family(Image: Amy Dowden Instagram)
Amy continued: “More recently with my medical team, um we had to make the decision 12 weeks ago to have my other breast off. So it’s been quite a rocky road to say the least. But I’m I am the type of person, and I think my dancing instilled this in me. Don’t get bitter, get better. I used Tom’s Hank saying ‘this too shall pass’ to help me get through it.
“But I’d be lying and I wouldn’t be doing anybody going through this any justice, not to say that, you know, it has been a really, really tough, you know, part of my life. And I’ve been at the lowest of points in my life where I sometimes didn’t see how I was going to come out the other end or ever feel like Amy again, or see a future, see myself back on the dance floor. But I’m really grateful to be in the position I am now.
“And hopefully in, you know, maybe a year or two time, the doctors can consider bringing me out of menopause and seeing if I can reboot. Chemo might have destroyed my reproductive organs, but who knows? Keeping the positive that um hopefully I will be able to have children, but we’ve got five embryos, so they will I like to think there’s always going to be an option somehow.”
Sharing a clip of the conversation to her Instagram Story, Amy admitted to her followers: “I was holding back tears revisiting all this but I know how important it is to share and raise awareness! We are so blessed to have 5 embryos in the freezer that hopefully one day if chemo hasn’t destroyed and my body will ‘re boot’ after forced menopause we will be able to fulfill the dream of becoming parents.”
Source: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/strictlys-amy-dowden-holds-back-33535536
