Strictly Come Dancing’s Amy Dowden has revealed she suffered a “life-threatening” setback amid her breast cancer treatment.
The professional dancer contracted sepsis earlier this month, shortly after her first round of chemotherapy.
In a new interview with Hello! magazine, the 33-year-old said: “I wasn’t feeling too bad that day, just sick, but a couple of hours later I started having a temperature of 37.7 degrees Celsius.”
“At the time, I didn’t realise that having a temperature of 37.5 or above could be fatal for a chemo patient. I just thought it was my reaction to chemo, but as it turned out, I had already got an infection.”
“[A couple of days later] I began feeling sick and not quite right. I felt freezing cold but I was all clammy and shaking. My mum and dad rang my red card [which provides the chemotherapy team’s contact details and current treatment information] and they said to hang up and ring the ambulance.”
Amy was then rushed to hospital, where she was treated by the Intensive Care Unit.
She said: “The doctors and nurses were telling me I had sepsis and that it was life-threatening, but I wasn’t taking it in. I didn’t become properly aware until later. I told my dad: ‘I’ve got sepsis’ and he said: ‘I know!’.”
Praising the paramedics who took her to the hospital, Amy said: “We couldn’t be more grateful to them. I was glad to be able to thank them for saving my life.”
“We are so lucky to have every single individual and department in the NHS. From my breast care team to my oncology team, to the paramedics, to those who help me with my Crohn’s – everybody does an exceptional job, especially considering the pressure they’re under at the moment.”
The Welsh native joined the line-up of Strictly Come Dancing pros in 2017.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump while preparing for her honeymoon with her husband Ben back in April.
