Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden angry at cancer diagnosis

Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has it will take a while to accept her cancer and Crohn's diagnoses

Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has said she gets "angry" about her cancer diagnosis at such a young age.

The 33-year-old dancer announced she had breast cancer in May, following a Crohn's disease diagnosis in 2019.

"I just think I've been dealt a difficult one... it'll take a while to accept," she told Women's Health.

"I've always worked so hard, I've always been a good person, I looked after myself, I've exercised well, haven't smoked... I do get angry."

The dancer, from Caerphilly, previously said she was "heartbroken" after fracturing her foot earlier this month - dashing her hopes of returning to the show this year.

• Amy Dowden makes surprise Strictly return

• Strictly's Amy is feeling positive after surgery

• Strictly star with cancer shaves her head in video

"I always say I never asked this to happen to me... Until I'm back dancing and back to my normal self, I don't think I will accept it," she added.

Amy underwent a mastectomy after discovering a lump in April

After previously speaking of the "trauma" of losing her hair following cancer treatment, Amy said her decision to appear on the cover of Women's Health without a wig was to give people with the same condition as her someone to look up to.

"I imagined teenagers being able to go to school and being able to embrace (not having hair) or go swimming and just be like 'I'm like Amy who's off Strictly'," she said.

"That just gave me the confidence to go: 'Yeah, let's do this'."

Previously, a cancer survivor told the BBC how she was moved to tears by Amy's Strictly appearance without her wig.

Amy said that she finds people often do not know how to address her illness and she just wanted to be "treated as normal".

"When I'm walking outside and I've got my headscarf on, I don't want looks of sympathy or feeling sorry for me... I'm Amy.

"Just ask how I am - I will answer you. We don't want you to feel sorry for us. We're embracing it. Stand strong with us... don't give me that pity look - I don't need it!"

• A POSITIVE LIFE: HIV from Terrence Higgins to today

• ACID DREAM: The Welsh farmhouse that sparked a revolution of the mind