{"id":142034,"date":"2023-10-05T09:44:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T09:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/?p=142034"},"modified":"2023-10-05T09:44:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T09:44:35","slug":"strictlys-amy-dowden-almost-died-during-chemo-it-got-very-bad-i-was-unresponsive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/tv-movies\/strictlys-amy-dowden-almost-died-during-chemo-it-got-very-bad-i-was-unresponsive\/","title":{"rendered":"Strictly’s Amy Dowden almost died during chemo: ‘It got very bad – I was unresponsive’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has spoken of the harrowing moment she nearly died following chemotherapy to treat her cancer. <\/p>\n

The 33 year old pro dancer, who joined the BBC One show in 2017, announced earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with grade three aggressive breast cancer. The Welsh ballroom and Latin star underwent a single mastectomy in June and has gone on to have five rounds of chemotherapy to treat the disease. <\/p>\n

Now Amy has opened up on how her first and second cycles of chemo ended up with emergency hospital stays and life-threatening complications. First she suffered from sepsis and secondly with blood clots.<\/p>\n

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She described how, after her first round of the treatment, she \u201cfelt great\u201d and even went on a five-mile walk with her dad two days later. But soon after, she collapsed with a high temperature.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there everything got very serious,\u201d she told the Mirror. \u201cI remember going into hospital and them telling me I had an infection, but the following day it got very bad, I was unresponsive to antibiotics for hours.\u201d <\/p>\n

She went on to say she remembered having a lot of doctors surrounding her in the early hours of a Sunday morning but then could recall nothing until she woke up on the following Monday when a nurse explained she had gone into septic shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said my blood pressure was that low, my vital organs would have started failing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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Amy also had a low heart rate and her infection markers were at dangerous levels but finally she responded to the third type of antibiotics she was given.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sepsis was caused by an infection she picked just up before her treatment – and her oncologist assured her she had just been unlucky. But during her second round of chemo she ended up back in hospital again – this time with blood clots – caused by complications with her port, fitted to a vein to help administer drugs for the treatment.<\/p>\n

She described how her arm swelled up and went purple – leaving her in hospital for two days. Amy added she had been left on blood thinners following the \u201cfrightening\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

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The dance star – who has decided to shave her head as she undergoes chemo – has had bad luck with her health since a young age. She developed Crohn\u2019s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition, at the age of 11 and has faced fresh bouts after joining Strictly in 2017. <\/p>\n

She told how she discovered a lump in her breast a day before she went on her honeymoon in April, a belated trip following her 2022 marriage to Ben, with whom she won the British National Latin Dance Championships. She had only just begun checking herself, following a charity trek with the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel!<\/p>\n

Doctors removed three tumours and further cancer \u201cspecks\u201d, plus some lymph nodes from her right breast, during the surgery in June. But afterwards she received more bad news.<\/p>\n

Medics had discovered a second type of breast cancer in the tissue they removed, and more tumours, including one close to her chest, as well as specks in her other breast.<\/p>\n

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They will need to be investigated once she finishes chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

But, despite her battle, Amy has admitted that she still dreams of dancing on the Strictly dance floor again. Writing on social media ahead of Sunday night\u2019s results show, she said: "There\u2019s no text book or right\/wrong way to deal with your cancer journey. Everyone deals with it rightly their way. <\/p>\n

"I\u2019m so lucky to be surrounded by so much support which I don\u2019t take for granted and days like here is what keeps me going. I\u2019m dreaming every night of dancing on that floor again but right now I\u2019m my fellow pros' proudest and biggest cheerleader.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n