AMY DOWDEN The Strictly star’s emotional new project

The Strictly professional dancer hopes to inspire all those suffering from chronic conditions – and, of course, claim this year’s Glitterball…

The dazzle of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing may still be a few weeks away, but when professional dancer Amy Dowden catches up with hello! she is already sparkling with excitement for the series ahead. “I’m itching to get started. I didn’t think it was possible to fall in love with Strictly any more than I have already, but every year I do,” says the bubbly 31-yearold in our exclusive interview.

This year’s glittering roster includes Olympic superstar Adam Peaty and Dragons’ Den’s Sara Davies. “We haven’t met them yet but I think it’s a brilliant line-up. Every year it is,” Amy says, adding that she hasn’t got her eye on a potential partner yet. “I honestly don’t think I can until I’ve met them. I just can’t wait to help them embrace the ballroom and fall in love with dancing.”

But before that, another important date in Amy’s calendar is looming.

This Friday, the BBC will air her hard-hitting documentary Strictly Amy: Crohn’s and Me, in which Amy reveals the brutal reality of living with the debilitating and painful bowel condition. She was diagnosed with it 13 years ago – a story she first chose to share exclusively with hello! in May 2019.

“Making it is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I’m honoured that the BBC are helping shine the spotlight on IBD [inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease],” says Amy, who won the 2019 hello! Star Women Raising Awareness award for her work talking about the condition.

The emotional documentary follows her in February last year as she endured a painful flare-up, which landed her in hospital just hours after performing in the Strictly Come

‘Making the documentary is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I had to be raw and show the true effects of Crohn’s’

Amy with fellow Strictly Come Dancing pro Dianne Buswell (above). Amy is full of praise for the support she’s had from the show’s entire team and now she’s returning the favour, talking to judge Shirley Ballas’s niece Mary (together, far left) about her experience as a fellow Crohn’s sufferer in the documentary

Dancing Live Tour at London’s O2. “I had to be raw and show the true effects of Crohn’s. I wanted fellow sufferers to have something to relate to.”

After her documentary was first shown in her native Wales last October, Amy is both “nervous and excited” to bring her story to an even wider audience.

“The first time it aired, it felt like ripping a plaster off. I’m sure this time it will feel the same. The response I got was amazing. Being in the public eye, I feel responsible and I want to do my bit to help,” says the star, who is a proud ambassador for Crohn’s & Colitis UK.

“I’m so grateful to the NHS doctors, my friends and my family who have enabled me to achieve what I have done. I want to show to anybody with a hidden illness that you can go on, and you are accepted. The more awareness there is, the more people talk about it, the more money we can raise – and hopefully one day we’ll get a cure.”

Despite the unpredictable flare-ups, Amy is inspiring others by living a full life, achieving her childhood dream of being on Strictly – making it all the way to the final with TV presenter Karim Zeroual in 2019 – and planning her marriage to dancer fiancé Ben Jones. After being forced twice to postpone their big day – with Amy’s fellow Strictly pros Dianne Buswell and Oti Mabuse as bridesmaids – Amy says they are “happy to wait to have the wedding we want”.

“We’ve got family members and friends who will be coming from overseas and we wouldn’t want them to miss it. We want to wait until Covid is out of the way.”

Her family, Ben and her “supportive and positive Strictly family” help Amy keep dancing through life.

“I never go into a series of Strictly with any worries [about my Crohn’s]. Oti knows when to come and give me a big hug and let me cry it out, Dianne will come and sit with me, Katya [Jones] will call my fiancé. Not just the other professionals, but the producers and the hair and make-up and wardrobe teams too. I’m so grateful for them.”

Having come so close before, is Amy dreaming of finally waltzing away with the Strictly Glitterball this year?

She gives her trademark sparkling smile. “If I said no, I’d be lying!”

Strictly Amy: Crohn’s and Me is on BBC1 at 7pm on 27 August.