Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden supported by co-stars as she gives candid update amid gruelling cancer treatment

Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has shared a candid update on her cancer journey as she bravely opened up about starting chemotherapy and how she wants to share updates to "help raise awareness" and "hopefully get others checking."

The dancer announced last month that she had undergone a mastectomy and reconstruction after being told that she had stage three breast cancer when she discovered a lump in her right breast before going on her honeymoon with her husband Ben Jones.

She has since started chemotherapy treatment after confirming doctors found "more tumours" and another type of cancer which she described as a "massive blow" as her new course of treatment means she won't be able to compete in Strictly this year.

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Offering an update to her fans and followers who are wishing her well and championing her to beat the awful disease, Amy posted a string of photos on Instagram. The first showed the star smiling for a quick selfie as she laid in her hospital bed, with a plaster clearly visible on one of her arms.

In the caption, Amy, who has been a pro dancer on Strictly since 2017, wrote: "I’ve decided I want to share my chemo journey to help raise awareness, hopefully get others checking and for understanding what we go through. Port fitted!"

She went on to share: "Wasn’t looking forward to it. Wasn’t easy… my veins! Feeling tender, bruised and sore but the port will help massively over the next few weeks and allow me to dance when I feel well enough."

Amy explained that a port "sits under the skin and the tube goes along my vein to the heart giving safe access to chemo," before jokingly adding that, while this is her