Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Amy Dowden has said tonight's first live performance since her return to the series will be "beautiful for my family". The 34-year-old said her celebrity partner, JLS singer JB Gill , had made the 20th anniversary series of the BBC dancing show the "perfect comeback" after overcoming breast cancer. She received her diagnosis in May 2023, when she found a lump the day before her honeymoon, and missed out on having a celebrity partner in that year's series of Strictly.
Dowden announced in February that she would return to the show this year, after a mastectomy and chemotherapy left her with "no evidence of disease" following tests. Speaking of her return to training and performing live, she told PA: "I'm absolutely loving it, JB's been the perfect comeback for me." "I'm just back in my happy place doing what I love most.
I think it's going to be just really lovely, because it's going to be beautiful for my family, because they struggled just as much as I did having to watch me go through it," she told PA news agency. "Last year's Strictly was a tough watch for them, because it was a reminder of exactly what we were going through. It's going to be one big celebration, this whole series for me.
" The Welsh dancer will perform the waltz to Leo Sayer's When I Need You alongside celebrity partner Gill. JB said he felt the pair's chemistry was "very strong". The 37-year-old said: "For me, I think it's just trusting Amy, she's the pro for a rea.