Strictly’s Amy Dowden ‘feeling better’ after being taken to hospital

Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden was taken to hospital after “feeling unwell” following the live show on Saturday.

An ambulance was called to Elstree Studios in Borehamwood as a “precaution” but the Welsh dancer is “feeling much better”, her representative said.

Dowden, 34, could not compete in the BBC dance competition last year because she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer including having a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

A spokesperson for Dowden said: “Amy was feeling unwell and so an ambulance was called as a precaution.

“She is feeling much better and would like to thank the Strictly family for their love and concern.

“We request Amy’s privacy in matters of health is kindly respected.”

Before she was taken to hospital on Saturday, Dowden and her celebrity partner, JLS singer JB Gill, glided their way to a score of 32 with their foxtrot to Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called just after 9pm on Saturday to attend a medical emergency at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

“An ambulance was sent to the scene. One patient, an adult female, was transported to Barnet Hospital for further care.”

Dowden first found a lump in her breast the day before going to the Maldives on her honeymoon with fellow professional dancer Ben Jones, and was subsequently diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.

In February, she announced tests showed she has “no evidence of disease” and it was later confirmed she would return to Strictly Come Dancing for its 20th anniversary series.

In 2019, Dowden revealed she suffered from Crohn’s disease and fronted the BBC programme Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me, in which she spoke about her battle with the condition and met other people with Crohn’s to hear about their experiences.

In January 2022, she was admitted to hospital in Manchester following a Crohn’s flare-up while on the Strictly live tour.

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

People with the disease commonly experience phases of stomach aches and cramps, fatigue and diarrhoea, among other symptoms, according to the NHS website.

Dowden has previously said she 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’”.

A former British national Latin dance champion, Dowden joined Strictly in 2017, and in 2019 she was a finalist with TV presenter Karim Zeroual.

Dowden documented her journey undergoing cancer treatment after seeing the impact on others of her documentary discussing her Crohn’s disease and how it had helped her “accept” her own condition for the “first time ever”.