The Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden has revealed she was nearly killed by sepsis while undergoing treatment for cancer.
The 33-year-old dancer said she was “very unlucky” to have contracted the infection while being treated for breast cancer.
“The doctors and nurses were telling me I had sepsis and that it was life-threatening,” she told Hello! magazine.
Two days after chemotherapy treatment on 3 August, Dowden went for a walk with her parents, Gillian and Richard. “The Strictly producers were checking in on me, and I was sending videos of me on my walk. I couldn’t believe how good I was feeling,” she said.
But when they got home, she took a turn for the worse and her parents were forced to call an ambulance when she fell ill.
Gillian told the magazine: “Amy’s symptoms got worse very, very quickly. At one point she felt OK, then suddenly she felt very ill – it happened in an instant.”
She added: “She went to stand, then just sort of crumpled back on to the settee.”
Ambulance medics sent her to hospital and the Latin and ballroom dancer ended up in intensive care with a high temperature, where she was diagnosed with sepsis, a life-threatening condition.
Sepsis can be deadly in otherwise healthy people but it is particularly dangerous for those undergoing any treatment that suppresses the immune system, such as chemotherapy. Dowden also has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory condition.
“I just thought it was my reaction to chemo but, as it turned out, I had already got an infection,” she said.
“On chemo, you don’t have your white blood cells to fight infection.”
She has since been reunited with the ambulance staff who saved her, describing it as a “scary ordeal” in an Instagram post.
“I was glad to be able to thank them for saving my life,” she told the magazine.
Richard added: “It was really good to shake their hands and thank them personally; they’re a credit to the service. I thanked them for what they did for Amy and for the rest of the work they do because they don’t always get the recognition they deserve.”
Dowden added: “We are so lucky to have every single individual and department in the NHS.
“From my breast care team to my oncology team, to the paramedics, to those who help me with my Crohn’s – everybody does an exceptional job, especially considering the pressure they’re under at the moment.”
