Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has reflected on an emotional year as she marked the anniversary of her second mastectomy, sharing a hospital photo and a heartfelt message following her breast cancer diagnosis
Amy Dowden has reflected on an emotional year as she marked the anniversary of having her other breast removed following her breast cancer diagnosis.
The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 36, took to Instagram to share a photograph from her hospital bed, surrounded by loved ones, as she looked back on the difficult period of her life.
Alongside the picture, which showed Amy recovering in hospital with a cannula in her arm, she revealed that it had been a year since she underwent the operation.
She wrote: “A year today I had my other breast off!”
Amy went on to admit that the beginning of November had previously been a particularly difficult time for her, with Halloween bringing back painful memories from the past three years.
However, she explained that her feelings towards the period had now changed following what she described as an “unbelievable week”.
She added: “I dreaded the start of November and Halloween because of the last three years and now that’s changed after the most unbelievable week!
“My heart is so full, I’m so grateful and I’m a big believer people are sent to you for a reason.”
Amy has been open about her breast cancer journey, having first revealed her diagnosis in May 2023 after discovering a lump in her breast. She underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy as part of her treatment before later receiving the news that there was no evidence of disease.
Her journey has seen her speak candidly about the physical and emotional challenges of treatment, while continuing to inspire fans with her determination to return to dancing.
She now shows “no evidence of disease” and is back competing for the Glitterball trophy after having a second preventative mastectomy in November 2025.
However, the dancer still lives with chronic inflammatory bowel condition Crohn’s disease. She eventually got her diagnosis at 19, having suffered debilitating pain, sickness, fatigue and repeated hospital stays since she was a child.
Amy had got to the point where she was hospitalised for six weeks while feeling the most unwell she’d ever felt “in my life”, forcing her dad, Richard, to intervene.
Speaking on The Lewis Nicholls Show podcast back in October, Amy remembered the frustration both she and her family felt when one doctor brushed aside her symptoms, telling her to “go and eat a Mars bar” after wrongly assuming she had an eating disorder.
The inadequate care from healthcare professionals became so alarming that Amy’s father Richard warned of potential legal proceedings.
Describing her mother Gillian’s heartbreaking reaction, the Strictly star said: “I can remember my mum burst into tears in that appointment and I was so ill, I was just in shock and I just wanted answers. And then my mum said, ‘well, if that’s what you think, you need to treat her for that then, she needs help’, and they didn’t.
“And I can remember just breaking down in tears, and then when I was 19, I was that poorly, I was in hospital and I was at absolute… I was so ill.
“I don’t think, except from when I had sepsis, that I’ve ever been this ill in my life and they ended up calling my parents at about three o’clock in the morning and I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore’.
“And they came down to the hospital, and the nurses said how poorly I was, and then my dad saw the doctor and he was just like, ‘we can’t take this anymore, we’re going to seek legal advice, you’re not doing anything’. And my dad was like, ‘this is not my little girl anymore. If this was your daughter, you wouldn’t have it.”
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