Strictly's Amy Dowden more positive after cancer surgery

Amy Dowden is a familiar face on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly dancer Amy Dowden has said she is beginning to "feel more positive" after having surgery for breast cancer.

"The cancer is in the lab now, which is the most important thing," she told the Mirror.

The dancer, from Caerphilly, revealed last month that she had been diagnosed with grade three breast cancer.

"The hardest time was waiting for surgery, thinking 'I have cancer inside me'," she told the newspaper.

"You're thinking 'It's grade three, what if it's spreading, what if it spreads tonight?'

"The feeling of it made me feel disgusted, disgusting. That's the time I was randomly crying, emotional.

• Strictly's Amy says breast cancer surgery went well

• Strictly's Amy reveals breast cancer diagnosis

"But we drove away (from hospital) and I thought, 'It's gone'."

She discovered the lump in April, a day before she was due to fly on her honeymoon to the Maldives with husband Ben.

Amy, 32, who has been on dance show Strictly Come Dancing since 2017, has publicly shared her struggles with having Crohn's disease in a bid to help others.

She said she wanted to do the same with breast cancer, explaining how she was prompted to check herself ahead of a trek with the breast cancer charity Coppafeel!.

It was organised by Giovanna Fletcher, the wife of McFly's Tom, Amy's 2021 Strictly partner.

What is grade three cancer?

Cancer is separated into different grades depending on how quickly it is developing, according to the NHS, whereas staging is used to indicate how far it has spread.

Grade three means the cancer cells look abnormal and may grow or spread more aggressively

The newspaper reported how doctors were able to reconstruct Amy's breast as part of her three-hour surgery last Wednesday.

"I haven't looked, I'm waiting for the bruising and swelling to go down," she said.

"I don't want to shock or upset myself."

She said her husband, Ben, had looked at the scarred area and said it "'looked fine, normal'. That's Ben for you. He wasn't fazed".

"Every day has got better in terms of soreness," she said.

"I think how quickly I have felt myself again has made me feel more positive."

She added: "I've had so many messages from women who have started checking.

"Even if 10 people start, I'll have done my job."