Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has shared a sweet photo from her surprise reunion with her co-stars.
In May, the former Latin champion revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and that she’d had a mastectomy.
Last week, during an Instagram Live interview with the cancer awareness charity Coppafeel, Amy shared that doctors had found “more tumours” and “another type of cancer”.
This new diagnosis means that the Strictly favourite will undergo chemotherapy, and as a result won’t be able to compete in the 2023 series of the BBC dance competition.
Although she won’t be appearing in the upcoming season, which will begin in the autumn, Amy made time to drop in on a rehearsal session, and posed for a snap with her fellow pros.
“I surprised the gang!” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo showing her and the Strictly dancers, plus choreographer Jason Gilkison, in a rehearsal room.
“Just what I needed! Seeing the @bbcstrictly family!” she added. “Going to be an amazing series and I can’t wait to watch you all shine and be with you all when I can.”
After she left the rehearsal, Amy shared an Instagram story, admitting that she had cried “happy tears” after reuniting with her friends.
“It’s definitely helped cheer me up because I really wanted to see them all,” she said. “The next journey for me begins tomorrow.”
Her colleagues shared messages of support in the comments section, with Dianne Buswell, Luba Mushtuk and Nadiya Bychkova all posting a string of heart emojis underneath the picture.
“My darling girl,” fellow pro Nancy Xu added.
Amy also posted a series of selfies with McFly singer Tom Fletcher, who she was paired up with on the 2021 season of Strictly, and his wife, author and podcaster Giovanna.
“Followed by the Fletcher household love!” she wrote in her caption. “Chats, tea, biscuits, chickens, hide and seek and a rrrrrrrreally good catch up which was soooooo needed! Thank you @tomfletcher @mrsgifletcher.
“Had the perfect day ahead of the next journey which begins tomorrow. Thank you so much.”
In her interview with Coppafeel, Amy said that while she felt “scared” ahead of her first round of chemotherapy, her oncologist had told her that “with chemo I’ve got a really good chance of a cure”.
She admitted that she didn’t want to undergo the treatment at first because of the impact it would have on her dancing.
“For me, straightaway, it was my dancing. Like, ‘you can take away my boob but you can’t take my dancing away from me’,” she said.
Speaking to The Mirror last month, Amy said she hoped to still “be present” in the Strictly ballroom “in some way” during the series.
“Whether it’s on It Takes Two, or being up in Claudia’s area waiting for the scores, I’ll be there,” she said.
Amy has been part of the show since 2017, and has been teamed up with stars like actor Danny John-Jules, EastEnders star James Bye, Invictus Games athlete JJ Chalmers and presenter Karim Zeroual, with whom she reached the Strictly final back in 2019.