Amy Dowden is well-acquainted with health challenges, having managed Crohn's disease throughout her life and confronted a breast cancer diagnosis, alongside additional struggles with early menopause and fertility issues. The Welsh dancer, 35, received an MBE from the King at Buckingham Palace last year in recognition of her fundraising work and efforts to raise awareness of inflammatory bowel disease - an ailment she has endured since childhood.

The Strictly Come Dancing star initially disclosed that she had been living with Crohn's disease in 2019, and in an effort to raise awareness of the condition while documenting her personal journey, presented the BBC documentary - Strictly Amy: Crohn's And Me.

Despite the disease's debilitating symptoms, which can include diarrhoea, stomach pains, fatigue, and weight loss, she remained determined not to allow it to derail her dancing aspirations. She even persevered through a flare-up during her 2019 Strictly partnership with McFly's Tom Fletcher, which resulted in her temporarily residing with the musician. "I have always been driven to win, so Crohn's was never going to hold me back," Amy declared, demonstrating her unwavering determination.

Speaking on the Monday Mile podcast with host Aimee Fuller, she disclosed experiencing up to five "blackouts" daily amongst numerous symptoms, despite having successfully controlled others throughout the years. However, her world was turned upside down when Amy received the heartbreaking diagnosis of stage three breast cancer in May 2023, aged 32, and underwent a mastectomy which led her to temporarily step back from her role on Strictly. Then, in July of that year, she was diagnosed with a second type of cancer requiring chemotherapy. Amy missed that season of Strictly and triggered a cascade of brutal side effects: she contracted sepsis in August, broke her foot in November and then suffered a blood clot on her lung in December.

In February 2024, she revealed her health check showed "no evidence of disease" after ringing the bell in November.

The dancer felt she had lost her identity and returned to Strictly that same year as she "couldn't face watching another series on the sofa at home".

She was paired with JLS singer JB Gill but during the series she collapsed backstage with a stress fracture in her shin on the sixth week of the competition and was replaced by Lauren Oakley.

In a new interview, Amy confessed that she went back to the show too soon, telling the iPaper, "But it's so hard. You just want your life back. It takes a long time to recover from the chemo but because you feel a little bit better every day afterwards, it's so difficult to tell when you're really 'back'."

In November last year, Amy underwent a second masectomy for preventative measures and not a new cancer diagnosis. She returned once again to the dancefloor for last year's series of Strictly where she was partnered with former Apprentice contestant and social media star Thomas Skinner, being eliminated in week two.

Yet having conquered her battle with breast cancer, Amy encountered further health setbacks after being placed into a medically induced menopause while also navigating fertility struggles. Prior to commencing cancer treatment, she was cautioned by medical professionals that it would bring on an early menopause. Consequently, she underwent an egg retrieval procedure to maximise her and her husband Ben Jones' chances of starting a family in the future.

Ahead of the release of her documentary Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me last year, she told the BBC: "I had a hormone-fed cancer, so they needed to put me into menopause because my hormones were feeding the cancer. My whole body was feeding cancer. But also because I was having chemotherapy and as amazing as chemotherapy is, it destroys a lot of cells in your body. Your eggs, your ovaries, everything can be damaged and not necessarily reboot again.

"Since we got married, the question we're asked the most is 'When are you going to have kids?' and my body can't go through that right now. You produce so many hormones when you're pregnant, I'd be at such a high risk of my cancer returning. Of course, we want children, but we still don't know. There are so many options, which we're grateful for. With fertility and the pressure in general, you don't know what someone is going through. People should bear that in mind. We need to educate."

Amy also opened up to Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie Smith on their 'What If?' Podcast regarding her aspirations for parenthood. "We would love a family," she disclosed. "We've got embryos because, obviously, I've got a hormone-fed cancer, so I was put into menopause, which happened the day I started chemo," she went on to explain.

"So, in a couple of years, when they feel it's safe, hopefully, we'll have the opportunity. And if not, there's still lots of other opportunities, which we have spoken about. Hopefully in years to come we'll be lucky enough to become parents, too, but [we're] taking every day as it comes."