MORE DARE ON THE DANCE FLOOR

Work was the best medicine when Dare to Dance star Amy Dowden was battling breast cancer last summer. And, she says, a little help from her Strictly friends meant the show could go on

- HEATHER GREENAWAY

STRICTLY'S Amy Dowden, who is battling cancer, has revealed filming the second series of Dare to Dance gave her a reason to get up in the morning.

As the heart-warming show returns, the 33-year-old dancer says she is "truly grateful" she was able to carry on with TV work while going through her treatment.

Amy had already started making the new series, which sees her teaching ordinary folk how to dance so they can surprise their friends and family, when she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer last May.

The Welsh pro, who began dancing at the age of eight, said: "We started filming just before my cancer diagnosis. So I'm like fully meeting the contributors, I'd taught them their first lesson and first steps, and then unfortunately I got the diagnosis. But we continued to film right until my mastectomy last June.

“And then two weeks after my mastectomy, I was back. I couldn’t dance myself but I could still instruct and we got the series done before I started chemo. So I was very much involved, far more than I thought, and it really, really helped.”

Caerphilly-born Amy, who joined Strictly in 2017, found a lump in her breast just before going on honeymoon with her husband, fellow pro dancer Ben Jones, last April.

Being able to carry on working kept her connected to a sense of normality.

She said: “I’m just truly grateful, and it’s been the tonic that I needed. You know, my normality. I think had I had all that taken away from me I would have really struggled.