Strictly’s Amy Dowden has revealed that losing her hair was the hardest part of her entire breast cancer battle.
The Strictly professional, 33, – who is now cancer free – had to shave her head after it began to fall out amid her chemotherapy last year.
Amy found a lump in her breast the day before she jetted off for a belated honeymoon with husband Ben to the Maldives last April.
The dancer announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in an Instagram post shared in May 2023 and underwent a mastectomy in July.
Since then Amy has shared regular health updates on Instagram. She battled sepsis at one point during her chemo treatment as well as a blood clot on her lung.
Strictly’s Amy Dowden has revealed that losing her hair was the hardest part of her entire breast cancer battle
The Strictly professional, 33, – who is now cancer free – had to shave her head after it began to fall out amid her chemotherapy last year
Now she has appeared in a moving short film which was aired on The One Show on Tuesday night.
During the clip she admitted that she is still coming to terms with some of the impact of the treatment, such as the aftermath of losing her hair.
‘Taking the decision to shave my hair off was definitely the hardest step to take throughout my whole cancer journey but I wanted to be in control,’ she said.
In the short film she opened up about living with cancer and how she is helping women who are diagnosed reclaim their bodies through dance.
Amy, who has been a professional dancer on Strictly since 2017, wanted to use her platform to help others who found themselves in a similar situation.
In Tuesday’s film she took mum of two Keren to a dancing session entitled ‘Move, Dance, Feel’, run by founder Emily Jenkins, which aims to help women undergoing cancer treatment reconnect with their bodies through dance.
Emily said: ‘It’s really recommended by oncologists and cancer support teams to be physically active at all stages through pre-rehabilitation through to post treatment. But also to support mental health.’
‘I found the mental, more [difficult] than the physical actually,’ said Amy.
Now she has appeared in a moving short film which was aired on The One Show on Tuesday night
During the clip she admitted that she is still coming to terms with some of the impact of the treatment, such as the aftermath of losing her hair
In the short film she opened up about living with cancer and how she is helping women who are diagnosed reclaim their bodies through dance
In Tuesday’s film she took mum of two Keren to a dancing session entitled ‘Move, Dance, Feel’, run by founder Emily Jenkins
Amy, who was recently told that she’s no longer showing any evidence of cancer, also took Keren to a workshop run by a cancer charity: ‘Look Good, Feel Better’
‘An hour or two hours away from the worry or the fear and the anxiety and just to connect to this sense of aliveness is just a gift,’ continued Emily.
Amy, who was recently told that she’s no longer showing any evidence of cancer, also took Keren to a workshop run by a cancer charity: ‘Look Good, Feel Better’ which helps women take back their identity through practical advice on make up or skin care.
‘A cancer diagnosis is devastating but I’m in awe of all the women I’ve met,’ Amy said at the end of the film.
‘They’re reclaiming their bodies, finding positivity and joy at the hardest of times.’
It comes after last week Amy shared how she has created five embryos with her husband Ben Jones for when they are ready to have children.
Amy admitted she found it harder to absorb the news she could no longer have children naturally.
Following her diagnosis, Amy was told there was a two-week window for her and Ben to try and create embryos that could be frozen for future use.
Amy has now revealed that the procedure was successful, however they can’t try to have a child yet because it would create cancer-feeding hormones in her body.
The dancer’s recent check-up showed she had ‘no evidence of the disease’, but it will be between four and five years before she receives the all-clear.
Although she recently announced her latest health check-up showed ‘no evidence of disease’, it will be an estimated four or five years before she gets the all-clear.
Amy, who first joined TV’s Strictly as a pro dancer in 2017, said: ‘In the words of ‘Sorry, Amy, you have cancer’, what I found harder was in the next sentence.
‘You know, newly married, we’d only been married in July (2022), and this was only in the spring (2023) now.
‘And his next sentence was ‘And what’s your fertility plans because unfortunately you’ve got a hormone-fed cancer’ – and I never knew anything about that – and basically ‘We’re gonna have to shut down your hormones’.
‘I’m sat there with my husband, and obviously children were on the radar or, you know, plans.
‘And that I think was like a double stab to the gut, and what I found probably harder than the words ‘you have cancer’.
However, the devastated couple were then given a small window of hope.
Speaking on Big Fish with Spencer Matthews podcast, Amy added: ‘The NHS offer an incredible service, that once anyone is diagnosed with cancer, and especially if they have to go through chemotherapy, they are offered the chance to have their eggs removed, and put in the freezer.
‘Sometimes your body doesn’t respond, because you’re going through cancer. I had a two-week window. And in that two week window, we managed.
‘And so we got embryos. Now we’ve got five little Amy and Bens.’
But Amy said she and Ben will still have to remain patient and wait longer than they would have liked because of the type of breast cancer she had.
She said: ‘So hopefully in the future. I’ll have to wait a little bit of time, unfortunately, because I have got a hormone-fed cancer.
‘You do develop hormones when you’re pregnant. So yeah, obviously, it’s not when we plan to, but hopefully, I will get the opportunity to.’
She continued: ‘I didn’t realise it was different types (of breast cancer). And I didn’t realise your own body could be feeding the cancer.
‘Even if I didn’t have to have chemo, I would have needed to go for the egg treatment.
‘But for anybody diagnosed with cancer now, male or female, if they have to have chemo, because chemo kills every living cell in your body, good or bad, I would now never go to somebody if I knew they had cancer or had had cancer, (and) say ‘are you planning on having children?’
‘I don’t think there’s enough awareness out there about that, because I had no idea.
‘I think it’s a difficult question as it is, but certainly for anybody battling cancer, that would be in my mind, you know, knowing that they’ve got that to deal with as well.’
Amy’s doctor complimented her that she had dealt with the diagnosis with positivity and ‘mental toughness’ as she faced up to her condition.
Amy said her own refusal to give up easily came from her years of experience battling Crohn’s Disease.
She said: ‘I do know from the doctor saying that, ‘I’m telling two people today, you and somebody else, same age, and, I think you’ll be here because you’re mentally tough – I’m not sure about the other one because it is sometimes a mind (battle)’.
But she added: ‘I do think you’ve got to be positive and as mentally strong. But don’t get me wrong, there’s many times I’ve been tested.’
Amy said her Crohn’s fight, which has included hospital stays, taught her to regard doctors telling her she couldn’t do anything due to illness as a challenge.
She said: ‘I guess I knew what it felt like to have my dancing taken away from me. And so when I was fit and well, I was determined to make the most of it.
‘I’d like to think in the training room or on the competition floor, I could push myself a little bit further.
‘I do think in that sense, it pushed me when doctors told me. (I thought) ‘How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do, you’re not living in the pain, you don’t have Crohn’s disease, how can you tell me what is and isn’t possible’.
‘And when someone tells me you can’t, then I’ve got to prove you wrong. It’s just me. I’m a very competitive person.
‘And I’d like to think that going through the Crohn’s journey actually helped me with my cancer battle.
‘Because I’m used to long stays in hospitals, I’m used to injections, infusions, to lots of hospital tests.’
Amy believes she was made stronger by Crohn’s and cancer – which came with setbacks when she developed sepsis and a blood clots – but she doesn’t want illness to define her.
She said: ‘It’s definitely made me the person I am today. I think it’s taught me a lot, it’s given me strength, it’s given me determination – but ultimately, I always don’t want it to define me as well.
‘Although it has obviously been a big part of who I am today.
Amy found a lump in her breast the day before she jetted off for a belated honeymoon with husband Ben to the Maldives last April
The dancer announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in an Instagram post shared in May 2023 and underwent a mastectomy in July
‘But I also see myself as a lucky one as well. I get to live and do what I love as a job. ‘Especially recently finding out the news of no evidence of disease, not everybody’s lucky enough to hear those words, and I get a second chance at life. So I’m also very grateful, and I have a lot of gratitude.
‘I’m a competitive person. I certainly wasn’t going to let cancer win on this. I was going to give it my best I possibly can.’
Amy married her husband Ben in June 2022 and found a lump in her breast the day before they went on her honeymoon.
After being diagnosed in May last year, she later revealed that doctors had found ‘more tumours’ and she would have to undergo chemotherapy.
She first joined Strictly in 2017 and in 2019 was a finalist with TV presenter Karim Zeroual.
She and Ben are former British National Latin Dance champions.
