Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has opened up about her terrifying wait for surgery after her breast cancer diagnosis, and vowed to return to the Strictly ballroom this year.
The professional dancer was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in May after discovering a lump while preparing for her honeymoon with Ben Jones.
Stage three breast cancer is the stage before the most severe stage, stage 4.
It means the disease has spread to lymph nodes, the skin or the chest wall close to the breast.
Speaking to the Mirror, Amy revealed the time between her diagnosis and surgery was unbearable.
She said: "The cancer is in the lab now, which is the most important thing.
“The hardest time was waiting for surgery, thinking ‘I have cancer inside me’.
“You’re thinking ‘It’s grade three, what if it’s spreading, what if it spreads tonight?’
“The feeling of it made me feel disgusted, disgusting. That’s the time I was randomly crying, emotional.
“But we drove away and I thought, ‘It’s gone’.
“I’m a doer, I feel we have done something.”
Amy had a single mastectomy and a reconstruction during her three-hour surgery last week but admitted she has yet to look at the affected area.
She explained: "I haven’t looked, I’m waiting for the bruising and swelling to go down. I don’t want to shock or upset myself.
“I wasn’t able to use my own tissue because they said there wasn’t enough. But they had been worried it might be too bruised and they would need to put an expander in.
“Normally you have breast tissue, fat and skin but they said I had no fat.”
And, she has praised her husband for his support.
Amy said: "Ben said it looked fine, normal. That’s Ben for you! He wasn’t fazed.
"Before I went for surgery he said to my boob, ‘Nice knowing you’. That’s so Ben.”
She also spoke of her determination to return to Strictly for the upcoming series later this year.
“If I only have radiotherapy I’ll be back on Strictly this season”, she said.
“Once radiotherapy is done there’ll be nothing to stop me, there’s no pressure but Strictly is leaving the door open. It’s having something to work towards.
“I’m visualising myself on that Strictly dance floor. Just being back in the ballroom with the live audience, the adrenalin and the atmosphere. And the support from the whole Strictly family.
“We can choreograph around me doing things with lifting, putting pressure on my arm. You can adapt.”
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