Amy Dowden has admitted that she ‘hates’ looking in the mirror after receiving chemotherapy.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, 33, announced her stage 3 cancer diagnosis earlier this year, forcing her to miss this year’s dance event without a celebrity partner.
She is presently having chemotherapy after doctors detected further cancers, and she has been updating followers along the road.
Amy will have her final session this week, capping up what she has previously described as the “toughest year” of her life.
However, she has revealed that the consequences of the therapy on her body have dented her confidence ahead of the milestone.
Amy gave a video update on Instagram on Tuesday, saying she’d put on make-up before a medical checkup, but she’d been suffering lately.
‘I’m not going to lie. I hate looking at myself in the mirror at the moment and I know so many of us who have been on this journey too will say the same thing,’ she began.
‘I’ve lost all my hair. Look at my eyelashes here,’ she said before showing close-ups of her face and also speaking about how she got her eyebrows micro bladed before chemotherapy.
She then expressed her dissatisfaction with not being able to exercise for months.
‘Anyway, I’ve gained quite a bit of weight due to steroids and I’m normally dancing all day every day and I haven’t been able to since May,’ she explained.
‘Obviously I’ve gained weight and I’ve gone up two dress sizes and all the way through I’ve told myself is to get well and I need to get through chemo and all this.
‘I really don’t feel comfortable in my own skin, and I want to get back to dancing in no time.’
She did, however, provide an exciting news, stating that she started treatment on Monday.
‘I will never be the same Amy again mentally and also physically, because of my mastectomy, and I am nowhere near where I used to be, but today I began that journey but to get back in the gym and do gentle exercises,’ she continued.
‘I want to get back stronger, but I know it won’t be overnight – my body has been through so much when I think about it.
‘A mastectomy into egg retrieval then a Crohn’s flare up up then I began chemo and had sepsis and blood clots. All of this in such a short time… my body has been through it and my muscles are not what they used to be.’
But Amy said she ‘can’t wait’ to finish chemo this week and embark on her ‘next journey’.
‘I want to build up my strength slowly and properly to get to the fittest and healthiest Amy and I am so excited,’ she said.
However, Amy said she wasn’t ‘deluded’.
‘I know it will take time and won’t rush things and do properly. In 2024 I will make sure to achieve the best regime and I know there will be ups and downs and tears, but I have missed that feeling of moving my body.’
While she was excited to ‘ring the chemo bell,’ as many cancer patients do to mark the conclusion of their treatment, she said that it would simply mark the beginning of her recovery journey.
Amy also informed that she will need to receive shots every month for the next five years.
Strictly Come Dancing continues at 6:05pm on Saturday on BBC One.
