Amy Dowden doesn’t want a ‘pity look’ (Picture: Mark Cant / Women”s Health UK)
Amy Dowden has insisted she doesn’t want anyone’s pity during her breast cancer battle.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, 33, recently finished chemotherapy after being diagnosed with the illness in May and she has urged people to treat her ‘as normal’ when they see her out and about.
Amy 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.
‘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!’
That was part of the reason for Amy deciding to pose without a wig for the cover shoot as she wants to shine a light for people going through the same health struggles.
The Strictly Come Dancing pro stuns in the new shoot without a wig (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)
Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)
She wants to inspire people with her magazine shoot (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)
‘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,”‘ she explained.
‘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.” ‘
The 33-year-old dancer sometimes feels angry about her illness (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)
However, she wants to provide hope to others (Picture: Mark Cant/Women’s Health UK)
She is determined to make it back to the Strictly ballroom (Picture: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
That feeling of acceptance and having people to look up to has been a huge help for the professional dancer amid her own cancer battle.
She said: ‘I never thought at 32 I’d be diagnosed with breast cancer… It’s a club you would never wish to be in, but when you’re in it, it’s the most loyal club you could ever be part of. I can speak to my fellow pink sisters and instantly they get it.’
She has also received a wealth of support from the Strictly team and her husband Ben Jones, but she does have moments of struggling to accept the hands she’s been ‘dealt’.
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‘Oh yeah… 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,’ she added.
‘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.’
Read the full Amy Dowden interview in the December issue of Women’s Health UK, also available as a digital edition.
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