My Strictly dream saved me
Amy Dowden tells JENNIFER RODGER and KATIE BEGLEY how she refused to let Crohn’s stop her from dancing
EVERYONE knows that passion can help us through dark times, but Amy Dowden’s love of ballroom was her saviour.
She opens up in a new BBC documentary about how suffering from Crohn’s Disease, a chronic condition that means she struggles to digest food, bought her to her lowest point.
She admits to being in hospital and feeling so desperate that she told her parents: “I can’t do this anymore, I’m just in so much pain, I’m done.”
Here Amy explains how the illness has affected her, and how her love of dance and the BBC’s Strictly helped.
You’ve been hospitalised more than 100 times since you were a teenager, how does Crohn’s impact you?
Crohn’s is a chronic condition which affects my digestive system and causes indescribable pain. I’ve had it since childhood and I’ve had to accept there is no cure.
Dancing has pulled me through, but it’s a battle. I live in fear that what I love the most could be taken away.
Everybody suffers differently. I suffer with severe constipation, sickness and pain. The pain can be that bad it makes me pass out. Many sufferers end up having surgery but, until now, I’ve managed my symptoms with supplements and a strict diet.
You had a really bad flare up last year, didn’t you?
During lockdown I had one of the worst flare ups I’ve ever experienced. I was in intense pain, unable to eat and drifting in and out of consciousness. I went to hospital and was stabilised with morphine and steroids.
Slowly I started to get better but it was June before I was back on my feet. It made me think of all the times I spent in hospital when I was younger. I think at one stage the hospital was my second home.
How does Strictly help?
Strictly will be more than just a dance show to me, it’s got me through the darkest times in my illness. For me it’s a big inspiration to keep me dancing, it’s what I work towards.
I had this dream of being on Strictly, if you told me when I was 19 years old and hospitalised for six weeks that I was going to go on to become a British champion and be on Strictly, I don’t think I would have believed you.
It’s been my saviour, dancing is where I take away all my worries.
Do you worry it might force you out of the show?
What’s helped me so much is that the Strictly team are so understanding. There are contingency plans in place. We’ve never had to use them, luckily enough, but if my symptoms get bad then a plan kicks in that production have.
I’m just truly lucky because before Strictly, I had so many job opportunities turned away from me because of my Crohn’s. It’s wrong, and in a sense, it’s discrimination.
Strictly Amy: Crohn’s and Me, Friday, BBC1, 7pm