Amy Dowden's defiant statement on debilitating illness before breast cancer diagnosis

Amy Dowden was struck by illness on Saturday night while filming Strictly Come Dancing and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but is now feeling 'much better'

When it comes to battling through pain and putting on a brave face, Amy Dowden is a pro.

The Strictly Come Dancing star, 34, has been open with fans about her health woes in recent years, having been forced to take a break from the BBC dancing competition following a devastating breast cancer diagnosis in May 2023. Amy received the all-clear this year and returned to the series.

But on Saturday night, TV chiefs had to make an urgent 999 call after she fell ill backstage. A representative for Amy said she was "feeling unwell" so an ambulance was called "as a precaution", and she is thankfully feeling "much better".

A spokesperson for East of England Ambulance Service confirmed the "medical emergency". They said: "An ambulance was dispatched to the scene and one patient, an adult female, was taken to Barnet Hospital for further care."

The beloved dancer, who joined Strictly in 2017, is no stranger to suffering from health problems. Before her harrowing cancer diagnosis, Amy already knew what it was like to live with a debilitating disease.

She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can cause potentially life-threatening complications, aged 19. Symptoms can include diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramps, blood in stools, fatigue and weight loss.

In an interview with the charity Crohn's & Colitis UK, of which she is an ambassador, the star defiantly said: "I have always been driven to win, so Crohn's was never going to hold me back." Amy added: "I just have to look out for the signs, which for me start with swollen eyes. Then I call my doctor.

"I have learnt to listen to my body, and to notice when things start getting out of tune. I know when I need to rest, and when I have to eat simply and drink lots of water." In 2019, Amy 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.

That same year, she suffered a flare-up during Strictly training and had to move in with her celebrity partner, McFly's Tom Fletcher, and his family. Then earlier this year, she was awarded an MBE for her services to Crohn's disease "on behalf" of all those who live with it.

The Welsh dancer was thrilled to return to Strictly full-time this series after her cancer struggles. Speaking in August, she told Prima: "Strictly has changed everything, from the opportunities it's given me – I've got to do tours, travel the world, buy a house, open a dance studio – to the people it's brought into my life... I've been in life-or-death situations, so dancing a one-minute-30-second routine for entertainment isn't quite the same as walking into chemotherapy."

After a health check in March revealed "no evidence of disease", Amy set her sights on getting back to the dancefloor. Appearing on BBC Breakfast that month, she said: "This is the longest I've never danced for since May so I need to get my body back into it. And obviously, my body's been through so much with chemo so it's building up gradually.

"But I have missed it so much. I used to go and support them and it was bittersweet. I was supporting my best friends but I didn't want anything more than to be on that dancefloor. It was so cruel. So that's the aim, is that they'll have me back, to be back on that dancefloor with my best friends doing what I love most later this year."