Amy Dowden's return to Strictly Come Dancing sees audience reduced to tears
Strictly Come Dancing audience members were reduced to tears as Amy Dowden returned to the show for her first live performance after beating cancer.
The 34-year-old professional dancer missed out on competing in last year's series after being diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023 when she found a lump the day before her honeymoon. But she delighted viewers of the BBC show in February when she announced that she would return to the show this year, having overcome the disease.
Taking to the dancefloor for her first live performance with celebrity partner JB Gill, from boyband JLS, the couple impressed judges and the studio audience with a waltz to Leo Sayer's When I Need You and received a total score of 31 out of 40, putting them top of the leaderboard.
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Their performance was met with a standing ovation and audience members could be seen wiping tears from their eyes as the camera panned across the crowd, before cutting to co-presenter Tess Daly who greeted the couple at the side of the dancefloor.
"So lovely to see you dancing again", she said Tess ahead of the judges comments. Giving her feedback, head judge Shirley Ballas added: "Amy, you're home where you belong."
Speaking to Amy after the judges' comments, co-presenter Claudia Winkleman said: "Amy, what did you think of those comments? I loved it when Shirley said you were back home and this was an epic partnership. Does it feel like that for you?" to which she replied: "I'm so happy I could burst."
Amy returned to the competitionafter tests found "no evidence of disease". She underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy following her diagnosis.
Earlier, Amy told PA news agency that tonight's performance would be "beautiful for my family". Speaking of her return to training and performing live, she said: "I'm absolutely loving it, JB's been the perfect comeback for me. I'm just back in my happy place doing what I love most.
"I think it's going to be just really lovely (today), because it's going to be beautiful for my family, because they struggled just as much as I did having to watch me go through it. Last year's Strictly was a tough watch for them, because it was a reminder of exactly what we were going through. It's going to be one big celebration, this whole series for me."
Week one of Strictly Come Dancing series 22 is available on iPlayer following the live show.