Strictly Come Dancing: Amy Dowden reveals sepsis battle - BBC

Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has revealed how she was struck down by a life-threatening condition while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

She said she was "very unlucky" and ended up in hospital with sepsis following an infection.

"The doctors and nurses were telling me I had sepsis and that it was life-threatening," she told Hello! magazine.

The ballroom and Latin dancer was given a second cancer diagnosis in July after discovering she had breast cancer.

The 33-year-old from Caerphilly, who previously had a mastectomy, has been sharing her experiences on social media.

She has previously described having a "few morning cries and learning that's OK" after starting to lose her hair during chemotherapy treatment.

The dancer also told the magazine that she has started to wear a wig.

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She wears the wig for the first time in the magazine photo shoot, and Hello! quotes her father telling her: "Amy, you look stunning".

She said fellow members of Strictly have been supportive amid hopes she can play a role during the next series.

She explained how her parents Gillian and Richard had to call an ambulance when she was taken ill two days after her first round of chemotherapy on 3 August.

"I just thought it was my reaction to chemo but, as it turned out, I had already got an infection," she recalled.

"On chemo, you don't have your white blood cells to fight infection."

After she suddenly became unwell with a temperature, medics advised her to go to hospital where she was admitted to an intensive care unit for treatment.

She ended up spending her 33rd birthday in hospital on 10 August after being readmitted for a second time following an increase in her temperature.

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Dowden, who also has Crohn's disease, posted a photograph on Instagram during a second round of chemotherapy on 18 August.

She has since been reunited with the medics she believes saved her, describing it as a "scary ordeal" in her latest Instagram post.

"I was glad to be able to thank them for saving my life," she told the magazine.