BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden declares 'don't give me that pity look' as she shares breast cancer decision amid chronic illness battle
The Strictly Come Dancing star recently finished chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in May
Amy Dowden has said she 'doesn’t want anyone's pity' as she opened up about her cancer battle. The Strictly Come Dancing star recently finished chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in May.
Amy, 33, announced in June that she'd been diagnosed with stage three breast cancer and had already undergone a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. And after completing eight rounds of chemotherapy, she has urged people to treat her "as normal" when they see her out and about.
It comes as the Welsh dancer has posed without her wig for a sensational new magazine cover shoot, and explained that people fighting cancer want others to "stand strong" alongside them. "I just want to be treated as normal. When I’m walking outside and I’ve got my headscarf on, I don’t want looks of sympathy or feeling sorry for me – I’m Amy," she told the December issue of Women’s Health UK as she graced the cover.
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"Sometimes, people don’t know how to address it. Just ask how I am – I will answer you. We don’t want you to feel sorry for us. We’re embracing it. Stand strong with us… Don’t give me that pity look – I don’t need it!" she added.
Amy also opened up about fighting cancer while also suffering from a chronic illness and how it helped her inform her decision on being open and honest about her cancer journey and gave her the confidence to post without a wig.
She is no stranger to health challenges and has spoken at length about her experience with Crohn's disease - a chronic, incurable gastrointestinal condition - in her acclaimed BBC documentary Strictly Amy: Crohn's and Me.
"Finding out I had Crohn’s [Amy was diagnosed age 19 following eight years of symptoms] I didn’t ever have anyone in the public eye to look up to or to say to my friends, 'That’s what I’ve got,'" Amy recalled to Women's Health UK. "And I just had a little moment: I imagined teenagers being able to go to school and being able to embrace [not having hair] or go swimming and just be like, 'I’m like Amy who’s off Strictly.' And that just gave me the confidence to go, 'Yeah, let’s do this'.'
But Amy, who has been forced to miss out on this year's Strictly due to her cancer treatment and fracturing her foot, was also asked if she ever feels 'angry' about her diagnosis. "Oh yeah," she replied to the publication who say the answer came 'without hesitation'.
"I always say, I never asked [for] this to happen to me. I’ve always worked so hard. I’ve always been a good person. I looked after myself, I’ve exercised well, haven’t smoked...I do get angry. I just think I’ve been dealt a difficult one. I think it’ll take a while to accept. It took me a long time to accept my Crohn’s. Until I’m back dancing and back to my normal self, I don’t think I will accept it."