Strictly’s Amy reveals secret health battle

STRICTLY Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has spoken for the first time about having Crohn’s disease, saying she doesn’t want “sympathy”.

Dowden, 27, was diagnosed with the condition when she was a child, but did not reveal she had it when she joined Strictly, because she “didn’t want to be known as ‘Amy with Crohn’s”, she told Hello! magazine.

“I wanted to establish myself as ‘Amy the dancer’ first. But I’ve done two seasons on the show now, and I think it’s important to speak out,” she said.

“It will be a relief that people will finally know, but I don’t want any sympathy. It doesn’t define me, it’s just part of me, and I want this to be a positive story.”

Crohn’s is a lifelong condition in which parts of the digestive system become inflamed.

Sufferers commonly experience phases of intense abdominal pain, severe vomiting, exhaustion and bloody diarrhoea.

But Dowden said the show had to go on: “There are occasions when I’m on tour, like the other week on Here Come the Girls, when I’m being sick in between the dances.

“The theatre wanted to call an ambulance. But the performance must go on. I come out and put a smile on my face. It won’t stop me.”