Strictly’s Amy Dowden has ‘strength and confidence back’ amid new dance tour
The Welsh dancer was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2023.
Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has said her strength, stamina and confidence is “back now” amid a new dance tour and following treatment for stage three breast cancer.
The Welsh dancer, 34, was diagnosed in 2023 after finding a lump in her breast the day before going to the Maldives on her honeymoon with fellow professional dancer Ben Jones.
She documented her experience receiving a mastectomy and chemotherapy and revealed in February 2024 that “no evidence of disease” was found during her latest health check.
She is travelling up and down the country for her Reborn tour with fellow Strictly Come Dancing professional Carlos Gu.
“We’ve done three shows so far. We opened on Monday, and it’s just been so magical”, she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB).
“And it’s just lovely being able to dance up close and personal again in theatres and being able to thank everybody for all the support.”
She added: “I’m feeling so much stronger, fitter, especially in the last few months, since December, I realised, ‘Gosh, this is what I used to feel like’.”
“I think every day after chemotherapy you start to feel better and stronger, but especially in the last few months and pushing myself at the tour.
“I really do feel like I’ve got my strength, my stamina and my confidence back now.”
She told GMB: “I think I was deluded on the road to recovery at how long it would take for my body to heal, both physically and mentally.
“But I’m just so grateful to be in the place I am now, and to be on the dancefloor with my beautiful friend, Carlos.”
Dowden and Gu have already performed in Birmingham, Southend and Bournemouth and have further dates in cities including Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Cardiff.
Dowden missed out on having a celebrity partner on Strictly in 2023 amid her breast cancer treatment and was forced to pull out of the competition in 2024 because of injury.
She later took part in the Strictly live tour alongside her celebrity partner JB Gill and her replacement on the show, Lauren Oakley.
The Caerphilly-born dancer has documented her cancer journey and living with Crohn’s disease in documentaries for the BBC.
In February she was formally made an MBE at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace for services to fundraising and raising awareness of the inflammatory bowel disease.
