Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has said cancer has changed her forever, and added: “I know my own self-worth now.”
The professional dancer revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023, after finding a lump the day before her honeymoon, and missed out on having a celebrity partner in that year’s series of Strictly.
After a mastectomy and chemotherapy, the 34-year-old announced in February that she has “no evidence of disease” following tests, and she is due to return to the BBC dance competition for its 20th anniversary series.
Reflecting on her cancer diagnosis and treatment, she told Prima magazine: “I’ve come through the other side, and I can’t be angry any more.
“I can’t change what’s happened, I can only move on. I have the rest of my life ahead of me and I can’t give it any more time than it has already taken.”
Dowden is to release a memoir called Dancing In The Rain and has also been the subject of an hour-long BBC documentary, Strictly Amy: Cancer And Me, which follows her diagnosis and road to recovery.
Speaking about her writing process for the book, she said: “Some memories were particularly painful.
“The moment when I was in hospital, so poorly with sepsis – it always upsets me when I go back to that.
“I was so lucky that I pulled through. My chemotherapy journey was still very raw, so that was tough, and I wasn’t the energetic Amy I once was, so there were times when writing the book where I’d be like, ‘OK, that’s enough for today.’”
She added: “Cancer has changed me forever. I’ll never take anyone or anything for granted, and I know my own self-worth now.
“You could maybe have walked over me in the past, but now I know my strength.”
Reflecting on the negative thoughts she faced at the time, she continued: “I would lay awake for hours, thinking: ‘Am I going to make it to Christmas? Am I going to dance again?’ I don’t go to bed worrying now.
“My cancer experience has helped me not to stress about my Crohn’s, as that had to take a backseat. Now, I think: ‘If it took a backseat then, it can take a backseat for ever.’”
Dowden was made an MBE for her services to the inflammatory bowel disease earlier in the year and is an advocate and ambassador for charity Crohn’s & Colitis UK.
Dowden is returning to the Strictly line-up this year along with dancers including 2023 winner Vito Coppola, Dianne Buswell, Nikita Kuzmin, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, and Carlos Gu.
