Yahoo News Strictly’s Amy Dowden was hours away from organ failure
Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer Amy Dowden came close to organ failure during her battle with breast cancer, she has revealed.
Following her recent encouraging health update, the choreographer joined Andy Coulson for a recent episode of his Crisis What Crisis? podcast, where she recalled being rushed to hospital after collapsing at home last year.
At the time, Dowden was "scared" about returning to hospital because she had "no white blood cells" and there was a high risk of picking up an infection. After being checked out by the medical team, she took a "turn".
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Despite coming down with an infection, doctors informed Dowden's family that it'd be safe for her to go home.
The morning after, though, her mum, dad and husband Ben Jones were told that she was fighting sepsis and had a blood clot on her lung. One of her aunts had passed away from the same blood infection a year prior.
"My parents went into meltdown mode, Ben went into protection mode of them, and when they got to the hospital I wasn't in the room," the dancer told Coulson.
"I was having an emergency CT scan and the doctor had just said to my - my mum had to walk away. My husband said that he'd said my heart rate and my blood pressure was so low that I probably wouldn't function more than 16 hours, my organs would go into failure. They felt I'd gone into septic shock."
Related: Strictly's Amy Dowden confirms she's "back on the dance floor" after cancer battle
Fortunately, Dowden responded to a new dose of antibiotics and regained consciousness to discover her loved ones surrounding her.
"I saw the pain in my parents' eyes, and I don't think they've been the same since," she said.
"It was so tough for them to have watched that, especially after what we'd been through with my auntie. And yes, I don't think they've been the same or ever will be the same again."
Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two will air 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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