Strictly's Amy Dowden opens up on cancer battle as she admits 'anger'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has said she does get “angry” and it will “take a while to accept” her cancer diagnosis at such a young age while also managing a chronic illness.The 33-year-old Welsh dancer, who joined Strictly in 2017, announced her breast cancer diagnosis in May after finding a lump in her breast in April, the day before going to the Maldives on honeymoon with fellow professional dancer Ben Jones.She had previously revealed in 2019 that she was suffering from Crohn’s disease, and fronted the BBC programme Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me, in which she spoke about her battle with the condition and met other people with Crohn’s to hear about their experiences.The Caerphilly-born dancer appears on the cover of the December issue of Women’s Health UK and told the magazine: “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. 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.”Crohn’s is described by the NHS as a lifelong condition in which parts of the digestive system become inflamed, and Dowden was diagnosed at the age of 19.People with the disease commonly experience phases of intense abdominal pain, severe vomiting, exhaustion and bloody diarrhoea, among other symptoms.On her decision to appear on the magazine cover without a wig, she said: “Finding out I had Crohn’s, 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.’“And I just had a