Featured Image Credit: Instagram/amy_dowden
Topics: Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing, Health
Jess Battison
Topics: Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing, Health
Amy Dowden shared her husband Benjamin Jones’ heartbreaking gesture amid her chemotherapy hair loss.
Back in May, the Strictly Come Dancing star shared that she’d been diagnosed with cancer at the age of 32.
After opening up about her breast cancer diagnosis, in July Amy said that doctors had found a second type of cancer that would require chemotherapy treatment.
Among the side effects of this is perhaps the most well-known; hair loss.
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The professional dancer often provides updates of her condition and chemotherapy to her Instagram, and recently opened up on her Stories.
She said: “The third cycle of chemo has definitely been my best one so far. Obviously cycle one I ended up in hospital, infection to sepsis.
“Number two cycle, I ended up with three blood clots. And this one, no hospital admissions. I’ve just had the usual side effects from chemo. Very happy I didn’t end up in hospital.”
The now 33-year-old explained that she’s been experiencing sickness, mouth ulcers and further hair loss.
Amy revealed that she ‘can’t now leave the house’ without having something on top of her head because ‘unfortunately I’m quite bald on top’.
Fans have been asking how the Welsh dancer has been coping with the loss of her hair and, wearing a scarf around her head, she admitted: “It’s really really hard. I think I cry, less now, but to begin with like every day.
“But now, I have meltdowns when I wash my hair once a week. But I’ve got myself into that I’m not brushing my hair anymore.”
She then went on to explain the sweet thing her husband does for her, saying: “Ben brushes it for me.”
Amy continued: “He gets rid of the hair that’s come out so I’m not aware of it any more. I’m obviously aware of it but I’m not physically seeing the hair that I’m losing. That for me is helping me big time because if I took my scarf off you’d see, there’s hardly any left.”
She also added that she doesn’t quite feel ready to ‘brave the shave’ just yet.
The dancer, who joined BBC's Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 as a professional, has been married to fellow dancer Ben since 2022, after he proposed on New Year’s Eve in 2017.
Delayed two years due to the pandemic, they reportedly married in Wales in July that year, and were surrounded by friends and family, including fellow Strictly star Dianne Buswell a bridesmaid.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.