Amy Dowden has revealed she has breast cancer as she said this is “another hurdle” to get through.
The Strictly Come Dancing dancer, who has been open about her battle with Crohn’s disease, said she received the news last week and wants to help raise awareness.
Amy, 32, said that if she can “try and turn this negative into a positive, it’s going to help me get through this”.
Amy Dowden breast cancer diagnosis
Speaking to HELLO! magazine, Amy admitted: “You just don’t ever think it’s going to happen to you. I hadn’t thought it was possible to get breast cancer at my age. My mum has had breast cancer, but she had it at a later age, in her 50s.”
Amy explained that it was her experience doing the CoppaTrek! last June that led her to discover the cancer. She admitted that she was speaking to the incredible women who had battled breast cancer and thought she wasn’t checking her own breasts.
She added: “This last year, obviously, I made a conscious effort to check my breasts. CoppaFeel! has now potentially saved my life, because I don’t know how long this lump could have been there before I would have noticed and done something about it. So me speaking out might end up saving some other people’s lives because they start checking their breasts.”
Amy, who married her husband Ben last July, discovered a lump in her right breast in April. It was the day before she and Ben flew to the Maldives for their honeymoon.
The star admitted she was “in shock” and “checked again”, before thinking it could “just be period-related or so many things”. However, she decided to keep an eye on the lump for a few weeks.
She said during the honeymoon, she was noticing the lump every day. She explained: “I started to check it less because it was worrying me, and I didn’t want to flare my Crohn’s up. Then, once we were back home, I went to do a [dance] show with Ben and I was putting some shimmer on and the lump felt so much bigger. I just knew I needed to go to the doctors.”
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Amy told to ‘prepare for the worst, hope for the best’
Amy said she rang her GP and went straight in, before being sent for an emergency referral. She said doctors had told her it was “looking very suspicious and to prepare for the worst, hope for the best”.
Following a biopsy, Amy was told last week that she had grade 3 breast cancer. She asked her doctor what the plan was and how long until she could be back on the dance floor.
Amy said her doctor explained that there are three grades to breast cancer, and three is the “most aggressive”. However, they feel like they’ve caught Amy’s early.
The dancer said she’s still waiting to hear more about a full treatment plan. She said the treatment will “definitely include surgery”.
What else did Amy say?
Amy added that she doesn’t know “what stage the cancer is yet, until I have an MRI scan and a biopsy on a second lump they have found in the same breast”.
Read more: Strictly star Amy Dowden and husband share big news in rare interview together
Amy then said she’s going to try and stay as positive as she can, and expressed the importance of checking your breasts.
Sending Amy so much love.
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