Strictly’s Amy Dowden has said she felt “really liberated” after appearing on the show without a wig.
The dancer from Caerphilly in South Wales is currently undergoing chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer earlier this year.
She made a surprise appearance on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night to read the voting terms and privacy notices.
On Sunday, she also went without her wig during the Pride of Britain awards and wore a pink breast cancer awareness pin.
Speaking of her return to the dance show, Dowden said she felt like she was “home”.
The decision not to wear her wig was a last-minute one, she confirmed, but an empowering one.
“The Strictly family treated me no different. They just gave me so much love and support and I spoke to production beforehand,” she said.
“I just felt really liberated. And I didn’t tell anyone, didn’t tell my husband, my parents because I wasn’t quite sure. I was nervous.”
EastEnders star James Bye was Dowden’s dance partner in 2022
But Dowden said she was “so glad” she did it.
“Now it doesn’t matter if I’ve got my wig or not,” she added.
During her interview on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, Dowden said she found losing her hair “really traumatic”.
“It didn’t matter how much I prepared myself for it,” she said.
As well as killing cancer cells, chemotherapy can damage some healthy cells which can lead to side effects including hair loss, according to the NHS website.
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“I couldn’t even brush my own hair in the end,” Dowden added.
“My husband Ben was having to do it because I couldn’t deal with seeing the amount, I couldn’t even look in the mirror in the end because I was bald on top.
“And just one night I just said, I told my friends and family, ‘I’m shaving it tomorrow’.”
