Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has briefly opened up about her breast cancer surgery after receiving questions from fans following her latest update. The dancer told fans last month that she had been diagnosed with stage three breast cancer after discovering a lump.
Amy, who has appeared on the BBC's hit dance show since 2017, first discovered a lump in her right breast in April, the day before she and her husband Ben Jones flew to the Maldives for their belated honeymoon. It wasn't until after her holiday that the Welsh star went to the doctors where she was quickly referred and told the news.
Earlier this month, Amy underwent surgery to remove her right breast a shse had "more than on etumour" and has now confirmed that she was also able to have reconstuction srugery at the same time.
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In a post-surgery update at the time, Amy told her fans and followers that her surgery “went well” and gave a “big thank you” to her surgeons and nurses who had been “utterly amazing”. She added in a message on her Instagram Story: "(I’m) very sore but focusing on the positives, they said the surgery went well! Thanks for all the support and messages."
And as Amy, 32, recovers from the surgery, she has had Dragon's Den star and fromer Strictly contestant Sara Davies for support after sharing her plans to keep busy while waiting to hear whether she'll neded just radiotherapy or chemotherapy as well.
Speaking in a video posted on her Instagram Stories, Amy said: "I’ve gotta give myself a new injection today, and this one’s very different. I’ve got a pen at the moment but this one is like a syringe, isn’t it? And I’ve not done it on my own before so guess who’s going to do it with me?" with Sara seen alongside her.
"You don’t mind, do you? Also, what did I show you last night?" Amy went on to say. Sara beamed into the camera: "I got to see the new boob! It's a nice boob."
Amy then continued: "Do you know what she said? 'You should get the other one done'," before bursting into laughter. Sara added: "I just said, that is one good looking boob! Marvellous job. Fantastic!" Following her post, the TV star appeared to be sent questions by her followers about her recent surgery.
It was then that Amy returned to her social media platform and spoke directly to the camera as she explained that she "had no choice" but to undergo the full mastectomy surgery on her right breast because she had "more than one tumour". She lso explained how she was initially told that she would probably have an tissue expander implant, that gradually expands using salt water to stretch the skin.
But, Amy said she woke up to having the implant rather than the expander, which was her preffered option but wasn't what she was expecting. "For me, it’s a better option because not more surgery etc," she said. "I woke up and they’d managed to put the implant in. So I have had reconstruction.
"I believe later on you can have the nipple tattooed [but] I'm not sure if I’m gonna do that yet." Speaking of the day of the surgery, Amy shared: "To be honest with you, I was going in focused one verything else rathern than the recontsution part. I knew I wanted reconstruction but at the time I was [like], 'Just get the cancer out of me,' obviously."
She added: "But thank you so much everyone still for all your lovely messages. A you can see, I'm doing really, really well. I still don't know what's next so just keeping my fingers crossed on that."
