When Strictly Come Dancing ’s Amy Dowden was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at 32, she suddenly faced the “most petrifying” time of her life. The newly married dancer went from preparing for rehearsals to sobbing through chemotherapy and freezing her eggs after entering medically induced menopause. Now, the Welsh star is sharing her harrowing health journey in a new BBC film, which documents her cancer diagnosis and treatment over the last year.
“When you’re told you’ve got cancer, in a click of the fingers, your life changes,” Amy says. “You have everything stripped away from you. I had my dancing taken away from me, what I love most in the world .
” Amy was filming her BBC series Dare To Dance when she was diagnosed in April 2023, and decided that the crew – who also worked on her Crohn’s documentary – should film her treatment process. “After my Crohn’s documentary, I knew the impact that made and how it made me accept my condition for the first time,” she says. “If it can raise awareness and 10 people start checking themselves from watching this documentary, I could potentially save a life,” she adds.
“It was daunting and I did have friends and family saying, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ But it gave me a focus throughout all of this.” The professional dancer was dealt another blow to her health just months later when she was diagnosed with “another type of cancer”, which required chemotherapy. This meant that s.