Strictly's Amy Dowden shares further cancer diagnosis and future on show
Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has shared an update concerning her health, revealing she has been diagnosed with another type of cancer.
The choreographer, whose last celebrity partner was EastEnders favourite James Bye, was diagnosed with breast cancer just a couple of months ago, but despite undergoing a mastectomy, her ordeal isn't over.
Speaking to Paralympian and breast cancer survivor Erin Kennedy in an Instagram Live video this week, she revealed: "I was originally going to have a lumpectomy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment.
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"But then, after my MRI, they found another tumour so then it changed into a mastectomy and then, after my mastectomy, unfortunately, they found even more tumours.
"My pathology wasn't what they were expecting, and they found another type of cancer and then they told me I needed chemo – for me that was a massive blow.
"It wasn't in the plan, originally – and I know the plan you can't get fixated on. So, all of a sudden, then I realised, and you get scared, but the oncologist did say that with chemo I've got a really good chance of a cure," she went on to share.
As for her hopes of returning to the BBC ballroom in the next series of Strictly, Dowden admitted that competing is out of the question.
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"This year it means I'm not going to be able to dance with a celebrity on Strictly, but I'm in such regular contact with the team. The BBC have just been utterly incredible.
"We are just one big family and they're going to be guided by me and there's so many ways to be involved in the show.
"I'm just staying really positive and hopeful that I'm still going to be part of the show in some way and my aim is to continue dancing – the oncologist said to me movement is really, really good for people on chemo, it's important. So that was encouraging."
Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Further information about breast cancer is available via organisations including the NHS, CoppaFeel!, Macmillan, Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Now. Readers in the US may wish to visit the CDC or the National Cancer Institute.
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