Strictly’s Amy Dowden: Overcoming Blackouts and Facing a Cancer Diagnosis

Amy Dowden is well-acquainted with health challenges, having managed Crohn’s disease throughout her life and confronted a breast cancer diagnosis, alongside additional struggles with early menopause and fertility issues. The Welsh dancer, 35, received 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 – an ailment she has endured since childhood.

Amy Dowden’s life has been a testament to resilience in the face of numerous health challenges. A skilled dancer from Wales, Amy has been navigating the complexities of Crohn’s disease since her youth. This, however, is only a part of her story. At 35, she faced a new battle against breast cancer, along with the additional hurdles of early menopause and fertility concerns. Her remarkable journey and dedication to raising awareness of inflammatory bowel disease earned her an MBE from the King at Buckingham Palace last year.

In 2019, Amy, a beloved figure on Strictly Come Dancing, publicly shared her struggle with Crohn’s disease. She took her advocacy further by presenting the BBC documentary “Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me,” aiming to shed light on the condition and share her personal experience. Despite the challenging symptoms of Crohn’s, such as diarrhoea, stomach pains, fatigue, and weight loss, Amy’s passion for dance never waned. Her determination shone through even during trying times, like her 2019 Strictly season with McFly’s Tom Fletcher, where a flare-up forced her to temporarily live with her dance partner. “Winning has always been my goal, so I refused to let Crohn’s stop me,” Amy stated, showcasing her indomitable spirit.

During a conversation on the Monday Mile podcast with host Aimee Fuller, Amy revealed enduring up to five “blackouts” daily, in addition to managing other persistent symptoms. Her resilience was put to a severe test when, in May 2023, at the age of 32, she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. The diagnosis led to a mastectomy and a temporary withdrawal from Strictly. Her battle intensified in July, when she learned she had another form of cancer necessitating chemotherapy. The following months were fraught with complications: she suffered sepsis in August, broke her foot in November, and endured a blood clot on her lung in December, all while missing that season of Strictly.

In February 2024, she revealed her health check showed “no evidence of disease” after ringing the bell in November.

The dancer felt she had lost her identity and returned to Strictly that same year as she “couldn’t face watching another series on the sofa at home”.

She was paired with JLS singer JB Gill but 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.

In a new interview, Amy confessed that she went back to the show too soon, telling the iPaper, “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 ‘back’.”

In November last year, Amy underwent a second masectomy for preventative measures and not a new cancer diagnosis. She returned once again to the dancefloor for last year’s series of Strictly where she was partnered with former Apprentice contestant and social media star Thomas Skinner, being eliminated in week two.

Yet having conquered her battle with breast cancer, Amy encountered further health setbacks after being placed into a medically induced menopause while also navigating fertility struggles. Prior to commencing cancer treatment, she was cautioned by medical professionals that it would bring on an early menopause. Consequently, she underwent an egg retrieval procedure to maximise her and her husband Ben Jones’ chances of starting a family in the future.

Ahead of the release of her documentary Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me last year, she told the BBC: “I had a hormone-fed cancer, so they needed to put me into menopause because my hormones were feeding the cancer. My whole body was feeding cancer. But also because I was having chemotherapy and as amazing as chemotherapy is, it destroys a lot of cells in your body. Your eggs, your ovaries, everything can be damaged and not necessarily reboot again.

“Since we got married, the question we’re asked the most is ‘When are you going to have kids?’ and my body can’t go through that right now. You produce so many hormones when you’re pregnant, I’d be at such a high risk of my cancer returning. Of course, we want children, but we still don’t know. There are so many options, which we’re grateful for. With fertility and the pressure in general, you don’t know what someone is going through. People should bear that in mind. We need to educate.”

Amy also opened up to Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie Smith on their ‘What If?’ Podcast regarding her aspirations for parenthood. “We would love a family,” she disclosed. “We’ve got embryos because, obviously, I’ve got a hormone-fed cancer, so I was put into menopause, which happened the day I started chemo,” she went on to explain.

“So, in a couple of years, when they feel it’s safe, hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity. And if not, there’s still lots of other opportunities, which we have spoken about. Hopefully in years to come we’ll be lucky enough to become parents, too, but [we’re] taking every day as it comes.”