Strictly star Amy Dowden has revealed she came close to death during chemotherapy following her breast cancer diagnosis.
The dance pro, 33, has endured five rounds of chemo since she was diagnosed with grade three aggressive breast cancer earlier this summer.
She has also undergone a single mastectomy. But her first and second cycles of chemo resulted in emergency hospital stays and life-threatening complications due to sepsis and blood clots.
Speaking to the Mirror, Amy explained she is trying not to focus on the negative aspects related to her treatment.
However, Amy admits she has come to realise how serious the side effects can be.
Amy Dowden cancer latest news
Following her first chemo session, Amy said she “felt great”. She even went for a five-mile walk two days afterwards. But she later collapsed – and was rushed into hospital in an ambulance. Amy remembers being told by medics she had an infection. But the next day she didn’t respond to antibiotics and within a couple of days she was told she’d gone into septic shock.
“They said my blood pressure was that low my vital organs would have started failing. We met the paramedics a week later and they said if I had gone to bed that night I might not have woken up the next morning,” she said.
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Amy bravely continued with her second cycle of chemo – but ended up in hospital again, due to blood clots in her left arm. Her arm swelled up, went purple and Amy was left short of breath. She also now has to take blood thinners for six months.
Doctors removed three tumours and further cancer specks, plus some lymph nodes from her right side, following her initial diagnosis. Amy also tested negative for the hereditary BRCA gene.
But within days, a second type of breast cancer was found in the tissue they removed, plus more tumours, including one close to her chest. Specks were also discovered in her other breast. They will be investigated when Amy finishes chemo.
The discovery proved a shock for Amy – and her doctor, who did not expect to find what he did. Amy told the Mirror: “I think I’ll have to consider another mastectomy.”
‘I don’t want to do that’
Additionally, upon hearing her treatment plan, Amy’s first reaction to chemotherapy was to turn it down. She went on: “I thought that’s Strictly with a partner wiped out, that’s my hair gone, that’s my life gone. I was like, I don’t want to do that.”
However, despite being “adamant” and going through a “meltdown” over chemo, she decided to continue after being reassured by her surgeon, as well as considering the reasons why she froze embryos with an eye to possibly starting a family with her husband Ben.
Read more: Amy Dowden takes on new TV role away from Strictly Come Dancing: ‘The experience was just brilliant’
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