Yahoo News Amy Dowden says cancer scare threatened Strictly return
Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has revealed that a cancer scare earlier this year threatened her return to the BBC One show.
The professional dancer was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023, and told later in the year that she also had a second type of cancer which also required treatment. After missing out last year's Strictly in order to undergo chemotherapy, Amy was announced for this year's season a few months back.
However, in her upcoming documentary Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me (via the BBC), which has been filming since her initial diagnosis, Amy confirmed she was told earlier this year that doctors had found calcium deposits in one of her breasts.
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The team treating Amy were concerned following the findings of her annual MRI and mammogram that the deposits could potentially be a "precursor to invasive breast cancer".
"It was a scare, such a worrying time," Amy says in the documentary, which premieres on Monday (August 26). "I'll never forget them calling me to say, 'We're sorry but we've seen something we don't like the look of.'
"I was in disbelief, I thought, 'I can't go back through this again, I can't miss Strictly again'. My whole family were heartbroken."
Amy explained that it really took a toll on her mentally, as she had only recently started to feel like she had gotten her life back on track, and added that the scare brought back all the memories and anxieties she had felt previously.
"It felt crushing, I felt sick to my core and [spent] so many sleepless nights worried," she added.
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Thankfully, further tests confirmed that the abnormalities were benign changes and she was able to rejoin Strictly, which returns to our screens soon.
Earlier this week, Amy revealed that she actually became the first professional to say no to joining Strictly when she turned a place on the show down in 2016 – a year before she joined the cast of professional dancers.
She added that "it all worked out in the end" and that her upcoming memoir Dancing in the Rain will go into more detail about why she initially declined a role on the series.
Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me will air on BBC One on August 26. Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year on BBC One, while spinoff Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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If you would like more information or support about living with cancer or treatment, please click here for guidance from Macmillan Cancer Support, or click here to learn more from Stand Up to Cancer.
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