Amy Dowden smiling
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Amy Dowden on starting a family and the words she found harder to hear than ‘you have cancer’

'It was a double stab to the gut'

Star of Strictly Amy Dowden previously opened up about starting a family with her husband Benjamin Jones following her cancer journey.

Amy was diagnosed with grade 3 breast cancer in May 2023. After undergoing a mastectomy, she found out the cancer had spread. As a result, she endured eight rounds of chemo between August and November.

Amy has since had the all-clear and will be returning to Strictly later this year. However, her cancer journey has left the possibility of her and Ben having children a little harder, something she’ll doubtless explore in her new BBC documentary tonight (August 26)…

Amy Dowden smiling
Amy wants to start a family with husband Ben (Credit: BBC)

Amy Dowden on impact of cancer: ‘It was a double stab to the gut’

Due to having cancer, Amy was informed that she is unable to have children naturally.

During an appearance on Spencer Matthews’ Big Fish podcast, she revealed she was devastated, admitting she and Ben had already been thinking about children prior to her diagnosis.

“[After hearing] the words: ‘Sorry, Amy, you have cancer,’ what I found harder was in the next sentence,” she said.

“You know, newly married, we’d only been married in July, and this was only in the spring now. And his next sentence was: ‘And what’s your fertility plans because unfortunately you’ve got a hormone-fed cancer? We’re going to have to shut down your hormones,'” Amy continued.

“I’m sat there with my husband, and obviously children were on the radar or, you know, plans,” she added. “And that I think was like a double stab to the gut, and what I found probably harder than the words you have cancer.”

Amy Dowden smiling
Amy has frozen her eggs (Credit: YouTube)

‘Now we’ve got five little Amy and Bens’

Things have been looking up for Amy recently. Even though she found out she wouldn’t be able to conceive a baby naturally, she was informed of an NHS service that allows anyone who was diagnosed with cancer to have the opportunity to have their eggs retrieved and frozen.

“Sometimes your body doesn’t respond, because you’re going through cancer,” Amy revealed. “I had a two-week window. And in that two-week window, we managed. And so we got embryos. Now we’ve got five little Amy and Bens.”

Doctors have recommended Amy not to get pregnant anytime soon. However, it’s only a matter of time until she and Ben potentially start trying to have kids of their own.

Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me airs tonight (August 26) on BBC One at 8pm.

Read more: Strictly’s Amy Dowden reveals she ‘cried more’ over hair loss than any other part of cancer treatment

Exclusive Interview: Strictly's Amy Dowden On Her Battle With Breast Cancer | Loose Women

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Fabio Magnocavallo
Freelance Writer