‘I kept thinking “It’s spreading inside of me”‘: Strictly’s Amy Dowden speaks out on her ‘terrifying’ wait for surgery following breast cancer diagnosis
Strictly’s Amy Dowden has opened up on the terrifying wait she had to endure for surgery following her recent breast cancer diagnosis.
Professional ballroom dancer Amy, 32, confirmed the diagnosis in May after discovering a lump while preparing for her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones in April.
She revealed that she was left in tears and worrying the disease was ‘spreading inside’ ahead of her single mastectomy.
Surgeons removed two tumours from her right breast as well as cancer ‘specs’ and lymph nodes, which have since been sent for analysis.
Amy told The Mirror: ‘The cancer is in the lab now, which is the most important thing, the hardest time was waiting for surgery, thinking “I have cancer inside me”.
Scary times: Strictly’s Amy Dowden, 32, has opened up on the terrifying wait she had to endure for surgery following her recent breast cancer diagnosis
Candid: Professional ballroom dancer Amy, 32, confirmed the diagnosis in May after discovering a lump while preparing for her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones in April
‘You’re thinking “It’s grade three, what if it’s spreading, what if it spreads tonight?”‘.
‘The feeling of it made me feel disgusted, disgusting. That’s the time I was randomly crying, emotional’.
Amy went on to tell the publication she hadn’t yet looked at her reconstructed breast out of fear of ‘upsetting’ herself.
According to the NHS a mastectomy is an operation to remove a breast. It’s used to treat breast cancer in women and breast cancer in men. The operation usually involves removing most of the breast tissue and skin, and the nipple.
It comes after Amy credited her Strictly Come Dancing colleagues for their incredible support after informing them of her breast cancer diagnosis during a group meeting.
She has since received a wave of public support from her co-stars on the BBC flagship, with Strictly producers confirming her position on the show will remain vacant until she returns.
Acknowledging their response, she told HELLO: ‘The pros have been amazing. They all told me how they would be there every step of the way until I join them on the dancefloor again.’
Husband Ben, who exchanged vows with the dancer in South Wales last July, also credited family members for helping them maintain a positive outlook.
Honesty: She revealed that she was left in tears and worrying the cancer was ‘spreading inside of her’ ahead of her single mastectomy
Happy: Professional ballroom dancer Amy, 32, confirmed the diagnosis in May after discovering a lump while preparing for her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones in April
He said: ‘Amy has had a lot to deal with in her life and, as I expected, has shown great resilience in the past couple of weeks.
‘We are both surrounded by lots of family and friends who are going to be an important support to us in the coming months. We are both staying very positive and remain optimistic moving forward.’
The Strictly Come Dancing professional shared her diagnosis on Instagram in May and discussed the possibility of returning to the BBC show for its new series later this year.
She wrote: ‘Hey all, I’ve got some news which isn’t easy to share. I’ve recently been diagnosed with breast cancer but I’m determined to get back on that dance floor before you know it. Welsh love Amy.’
The dancer has battled gut condition Crohn’s disease since she was a child and said she has already been through ‘quite a lot’ in her life with health struggles.
She told HELLO at the time: ‘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 said it was taking part in the CoppaTrek! walk last June in support of breast health awareness charity CoppaFeel! that led her to discover her own cancer.
Tight knit community: Amy has credited her Strictly friends for their support (L-R Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova and Amy Dowden in 2017)
She realised that she doesn’t ‘check her breasts’ and then made a conscious effort to check herself, saying CoppaFeel! has ‘potentially saved her life’.
‘I don’t know how long this lump could have been there before I would have noticed and done something about it,’ she added.
Amy said she found a lump in her right breast in April, a day before she and her husband flew to the Maldives for a belated honeymoon after their wedding last July.
The dancer said she was ‘in shock’ and decided to keep an eye on the lump, before going to the doctor when the lump grew on her return home.
She was immediately sent for an emergency referral, where she was told the lump looked ‘suspicious’ and to ‘prepare for the worst’.
After a biopsy, Amy was told she had grade three breast cancer, saying her first question was when she could get back on the dance floor.
Grade three cancer is when the cells look very different to normal breast cells and tend to spread more quickly. The grade describes how a cancer cell looks under a microscope.
It is different to a cancer stage, which describes the size of the cancer and how far it has spread. Amy is yet to find out what stage of cancer she has.
Amy said her cancer has been caught ‘early’ and she is now waiting for more information before she is given a full treatment plan, which will include surgery.
What is breast cancer, how many people does it strike and what are the symptoms?
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women.
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an ‘invasive’ breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply.
There are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000
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