Amy Dowden broke down in tears as she spoke about her hopes of starting a family, three years after her breast cancer diagnosis. The Strictly Come Dancing star, now 35, was diagnosed in May 2023 at age 32 after finding a lump the day before her honeymoon with husband Benjamin Jones.
Treatment and setbacks
Amy underwent a single mastectomy and gruelling chemotherapy, during which she faced life-threatening sepsis. In February 2024, doctors told her there was 'no evidence of disease', and she returned to the BBC show later that year with JB Gill, but withdrew due to injury. In November 2025, she had a second mastectomy, a decision made with her medical team, not for new cancer.
Emotional moment on Celebrity Hunted
While filming Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted for Stand Up To Cancer, Amy became emotional at the home of fellow dancer Neil Jones, his wife Chyna Mills, and their daughter Havana. She wiped away tears as she said: "Obviously I’ve always wanted the honour of being a mum, and obviously I don’t know if that’s going to be possible."
She reflected: "A cancer diagnosis changes your life forever. I just got married, I had my whole life ahead of me and all of a sudden, my world fell apart right in front of me. But I’ve been given another shot at life, and I want to embrace it and take every opportunity that comes my way."
Hope for the future
Amy was medically put into early menopause as part of her treatment for hormone-fed cancer. On Matt Willis' podcast last year, she shared her hopes: "And hopefully in, you know, maybe a year or two time, the doctors can consider bringing me out of menopause and seeing if I can reboot. Chemo might have destroyed my reproductive organs, but who knows? Keeping the positive that um hopefully I will be able to have children, but we've got five embryos, so they will I like to think there's always going to be an option somehow."
