Amy Dowden took to Instagram on Sunday to ask her followers for advice before she starts chemotherapy.
The professional dancer opened up to HELLO! earlier this year after being diagnosed with breast cancer before she underwent a mastectomy. Sadly, though, as she revealed this week, further scans have shown another type of cancer for which she will now need chemotherapy.
The star remains optimistic about the future, though, and asked her fans on Instagram for help getting through the gruelling treatment.
Taking to her Stories, Amy wrote: “Chemo tips! Especially hair! Going to try the cold cap [praying emoji, pink heart emoji]”. Her followers were quick to offer advice, which Amy re-posted.
One answer read: “Paint your nails in a dark varnish pref black. Should stop your nails from falling off x.” The star responded: “Thank you, yes will do.”
Another simply suggested: “Gloves and thick socks” while a third replied: “Remember you’re beautiful with or without hair,” and a fourth chimed in: “Take a blanket with you… it’s cold!”
© InstagramAmy revealed the extent of her cancer on Friday as part of an Instagram Live chat with Paralympic gold medallist and breast cancer survivor Erin Kennedy.
© GettyShe said: “For me, my journey, everything changed. I was originally going to have a lumpectomy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. “But then, after my MRI, they found another tumour so then it changed into a mastectomy and then, after my mastectomy, unfortunately, they found even more tumours.
© Getty“And my pathology wasn’t what they were expecting, and they found another type of cancer and then they told me I needed chemo – for me that was a massive blow. It wasn’t in the plan, originally – and I know the plan you can’t get fixated on.
“So, all of a sudden, then I realised, and you get scared, but the oncologist did say that with chemo I’ve got a really good chance of a cure.
© Getty“I was really scared and I didn’t want to do chemo but then seeing someone like yourself [Erin] who’s carried on and for me straightaway it was my dancing, like, you can take away my boob but you can’t take my dancing away from me and that’s what I get really upset about.”
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Amy is not expected to be paired with a celebrity for the upcoming series of Strictly, although she hopes to appear on the show in some capacity. The professional dancer exclusively told HELLO! about her diagnosis back in May.
© Ken McKay/ITV/ShutterstockThe Welsh-born star revealed that she had discovered a lump on her breast, just as she was heading on her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones. “I was in the shower and I felt this hard lump in my right breast,” she recalled.
© Getty“I was in shock; I checked again. I thought: ‘Right, it could just be period-related, or so many things. I decided I was going to keep an eye on it for a few weeks. On holiday, putting body lotion on every day, I was noticing it.”
© InstagramShe continued: “My doctor explained to me that there are three grades, and three is the most aggressive, but they feel like they’ve caught mine early and to not be too alarmed because grade 3 would be expected in somebody of my age.”
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