Amy Dowden has revealed that she was rushed to hospital last week.
The Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in May last year, shared that her family were by her side during the tough time, but said that she was “feeling much better now”.
Taking to Instagram, Amy thanked the NHS for the care she had received on the respiratory unit, as well as her husband Ben and family for “spending hours next to [her] bed” while she slept. Sharing photos of herself in a hospital gown in bed, she wrote: “So last week didn’t exact;y go to plan! Feeling much better now and still taking it easy. But can’t thank the nhs and the care I received on respiratory unit enough!”
“Also to my family and Ben of course. Always dropping everything and spending endless hours next to my bed whilst I mainly slept. Feeling much better and thanks for the many messages after going quiet! Off to the oncology unit today for my monthly injection (missed it last week with being poorly). How is everyone? The sun is shining and I certainly can’t wait for spring.”
She went on to share a photo of herself at a fundraiser as she wrote: Big thank you to these girlies who yesterday raised money for breast cancer! So gutted I couldn’t be there as planned! Proud of you superstars! Over £1,600 raised!”
The dancer has previously spoken about the first moment she discovered a lump in her breast, one day before her honeymoon to the Maldives with Ben in April. She had only just begun checking herself, following a charity trek with the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! “I was in the shower and I felt this hard lump in my right breast. I was in shock; I checked again,” she told HELLO! Magazine. After realising the lump had grown while on holiday, Amy went to see her GP and was sent for an emergency referral. It was then she was suddenly diagnosed with aggressive stage three breast cancer. “You just don’t ever think it’s going to happen to you. I hadn’t thought it was possible to get breast cancer at my age,” she continued, explaining that her mum had breast cancer in her fifties.
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That month, Amy underwent a mastectomy and surgeons removed three tumours and further cancer specks, plus some lymph nodes from her right breast. But days afterwards, doctors discovered a second type of breast cancer in the tissue they removed, plus more tumours, including one close to her chest, and specks in her other breast. It came as a huge shock to Amy. She was advised to have chemotherapy, but her first reaction was to refuse it. “I thought that’s Strictly with a partner wiped out, that’s my hair gone, that’s my life gone. I was like, I don’t want to do that,” she told the Mirror. While her surgeon kept telling her she could “dance forever and ever afterwards”, Amy was adamant she didn’t want to do it – until her former dance teacher stepped in.
Amy was undergoing IVF to create and freeze embryos at the time, hoping she and Ben might still have children. “She gave me tough love and said, ‘What’s the point of these embryos if you’re not going to have chemo? Because you won’t be around to have these babies anyway’,” Amy said. She finally decided chemo was right. But sadly, her first and second cycles didn’t go to plan, resulting in emergency hospital stays and life-threatening complications. First came sepsis, then blood clots. “They said my blood pressure was that low my vital organs would have started failing,” Amy said of the first cycle. “We met the paramedics a week later and they said if I had gone to bed that night I might not have woken up the next morning.”
Assured by her oncologist that she had been unlucky, Amy pressed ahead with her second cycle of chemo, only to be faced again by terrifying circumstances. “I got blood clots, I ended up back in hospital,” she explained, adding that it was “frightening”. Amy recovered and as chemo continued, her hair began falling out at home, which was a horrific experience for her. “I found losing my hair really traumatic and it didn’t matter how much I prepared for it I couldn’t even brush my own hair in the end I couldn’t even look in the mirror in the end because I was bald in top,” she said.
In September, she made the decision to shave her head and filmed it to post on Instagram. “We all did it together, my friends and family got together, we tried to make it as fun as possible,” Amy explained. “They inspired me and I want to use my platform to give others the courage and strength they need.” Amy has kept the hairs in a small plastic IKEA bag and isn’t really sure what to do with them. “Maybe I’ll chuck it away when we do the ‘ring the bell’ party,” she said.
Amy said in November that she was ‘proud of herself’ as she shared a health update after ringing the chemotherapy bell. In a new heartfelt post, she opened up about the milestone moment of her breast cancer journey. She shared a video of her hugging multiple hospital staff before ringing the bell as she teared up. She said: “I rang the bell and I’m so thankful I got too! My toughest journey yet!
“These past few months I look back and think how did my body get through this both physically and mentally. From the words I’m so sorry Amy, it’s cancer and what’s your fertility plans. To having a mastectomy, two weeks later hormone daily injections for egg retrieval, a little Crohns flare up and then on to chemo plus shutting down my ovaries on the same day which sadly lead to sepsis, blood clots, losing my hair, my eyebrows, lashes (I have a few hanging in there) and three toe nails.
“But also it’s taken away my love of life these past few months and of course my DANCING! It’s been tough. But hopefully has now given me chance of more life which I’m eternally grateful for and I will never take for granted again. I’ll never be the same Amy again but, what I do know is I’m so much stronger than I ever knew and I have made the most amazing friends along the way.”
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