Amy Dowden confronted a breast cancer diagnosis in May 2023 at age 32, which led to a mastectomy and caused her to temporarily step back from Strictly Come Dancing, missing that season. She contracted sepsis in August 2023, but by February 2024, she revealed her health check showed no evidence of disease after ringing the bell in November. Her lifelong battle with Crohn's disease has involved symptoms like diarrhoea, stomach pains, fatigue, and weight loss, and she has faced additional struggles with early menopause and fertility issues.
According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Amy Dowden described always being driven to win, so Crohn's was never going to hold her back. She persevered through a Crohn's disease flare-up during her 2019 Strictly partnership with McFly's Tom Fletcher, which resulted in her temporarily residing with him, and she disclosed experiencing up to five blackouts daily among numerous symptoms on the Monday Mile podcast with host Aimee Fuller. Recognition for her advocacy work includes receiving an MBE from the King at Buckingham Palace last year in recognition of her fundraising work and efforts to raise awareness of inflammatory bowel disease, and she presented the BBC documentary 'Strictly Amy: Crohn's And Me' to raise awareness of Crohn's disease and document her personal journey.
I have always been driven to win, so Crohn's was never going to hold me back.
She returned to Strictly Come Dancing in 2024 because she couldn't face watching another series on the sofa at home, and she was paired with JLS singer JB Gill. During the series, she collapsed backstage with a stress fracture in her shin on the sixth week of the competition and was replaced by Lauren Oakley. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Amy Dowden described that it's so hard to recover from chemo, as you just want your life back, and in a new interview, she confessed that she went back to Strictly Come Dancing too soon.
Amy Dowden is a Welsh dancer, aged 35.
But it’s so hard. You just want your life back. It takes a long time to recover from the chemo but because you feel a little bit better every day afterwards, it’s so difficult to tell when you’re really