Strictly Come Dancing skilled Amy Dowden bravely opened up about her well being battles together with Crohn’s illness, breast most cancers, and fertility struggles.
Amy was positioned into medically induced menopause following her most cancers remedy and has confronted fertility difficulties (Picture: PA Wire)
Amy Dowden is well-acquainted with well being challenges, having managed Crohn’s illness all through her life and confronted a breast most cancers prognosis, alongside further struggles with early menopause and fertility points. The Welsh dancer, 35, acquired an MBE from the King at Buckingham Palace final yr in recognition of her fundraising work and efforts to lift consciousness of inflammatory bowel illness – an ailment she has endured since childhood.
The Strictly Come Dancing star initially disclosed that she had been dwelling with Crohn’s illness in 2019, and in an effort to lift consciousness of the situation whereas documenting her private journey, offered the BBC documentary – Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me.
Regardless of the illness’s debilitating signs, which might embody diarrhoea, abdomen pains, fatigue, and weight reduction, she remained decided to not permit it to derail her dancing aspirations. She even persevered via a flare-up throughout her 2019 Strictly partnership with McFly’s Tom Fletcher, which resulted in her briefly residing with the musician. “I’ve all the time been pushed to win, so Crohn’s was by no means going to carry me again,” Amy declared, demonstrating her unwavering willpower.
Talking on the Monday Mile podcast with host Aimee Fuller, she disclosed experiencing as much as 5 “blackouts” each day amongst quite a few signs, regardless of having efficiently managed others all through the years. Nonetheless, her world was turned the other way up when Amy acquired the heartbreaking prognosis of stage three breast most cancers in Might 2023, aged 32, and underwent a mastectomy which led her to briefly step again from her position on Strictly. Then, in July of that yr, she was recognized with a second kind of most cancers requiring chemotherapy. Amy missed that season of Strictly and triggered a cascade of brutal uncomfortable side effects: she contracted sepsis in August, broke her foot in November after which suffered a blood clot on her lung in December.
Amy Dowden acquired the heartbreaking most cancers prognosis in 2023 (Picture: Getty Photographs)
In February 2024, she revealed her well being test confirmed “no proof of illness” after ringing the bell in November.
The dancer felt she had misplaced her identification and returned to Strictly that very same yr as she “could not face watching one other collection on the couch at residence”.
She was paired with JLS singer JB Gill however throughout the collection she collapsed backstage with a stress fracture in her shin on the sixth week of the competitors and was changed by Lauren Oakley.
In a brand new interview, Amy confessed that she went again to the present too quickly, telling the iPaper, “Nevertheless it’s so exhausting. You simply need your life again. It takes a very long time to get better from the chemo however since you really feel just a little bit higher each day afterwards, it’s so troublesome to inform if you’re actually ‘again’.”
In November final yr, Amy underwent a second masectomy for preventative measures and never a brand new most cancers prognosis. She returned as soon as once more to the dancefloor for final yr’s collection of Strictly the place she was partnered with former Apprentice contestant and social media star Thomas Skinner, being eradicated in week two.
Amy Dowden on the hospital for her first most cancers remedy (Picture: Instagram/@amy_dowden)
But having conquered her battle with breast most cancers, Amy encountered additional well being setbacks after being positioned right into a medically induced menopause whereas additionally navigating fertility struggles. Previous to commencing most cancers remedy, she was cautioned by medical professionals that it might convey on an early menopause. Consequently, she underwent an egg retrieval process to maximise her and her husband Ben Jones’ probabilities of beginning a household sooner or later.
Forward of the discharge of her documentary Strictly Amy: Most cancers and Me final yr, she informed the BBC: “I had a hormone-fed most cancers, so that they wanted to place me into menopause as a result of my hormones have been feeding the most cancers. My entire physique was feeding most cancers. But in addition as a result of I used to be having chemotherapy and as wonderful as chemotherapy is, it destroys lots of cells in your physique. Your eggs, your ovaries, every little thing might be broken and never essentially reboot once more.
“Since we bought married, the query we’re requested essentially the most is ‘When are you going to have children?’ and my physique cannot undergo that proper now. You produce so many hormones if you’re pregnant, I might be at such a excessive threat of my most cancers returning. In fact, we would like kids, however we nonetheless do not know. There are such a lot of choices, which we’re grateful for. With fertility and the stress normally, you do not know what somebody goes via. Individuals ought to bear that in thoughts. We have to educate.”
Amy additionally opened as much as Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie Smith on their ‘What If?’ Podcast concerning her aspirations for parenthood. “We might love a household,” she disclosed. “We have got embryos as a result of, clearly, I’ve bought a hormone-fed most cancers, so I used to be put into menopause, which occurred the day I began chemo,” she went on to elucidate.
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“So, in a few years, after they really feel it is protected, hopefully, we’ll have the chance. And if not, there’s nonetheless a number of different alternatives, which now we have spoken about. Hopefully in years to return we’ll be fortunate sufficient to develop into dad and mom, too, however [we’re] taking each day because it comes.”
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