Strictly's Amy Dowden delighted with 'perfect comeback' after return to ballroom floor following cancer treatment

21 September 2024, 23:38 | Updated: 21 September 2024, 23:39

Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden said she was delighted with a 'perfect comeback' as she returned to the ballroom floor on Saturday night following her treatment for cancer.

Dowden missed out on having a celebrity partner last year amid her treatment for breast cancer but said she was "so happy" after her performance during the series first live show.

The Welsh dancer is partnering JLS singer JB Gill and the pair were awarded 31 points from the judges for their waltz to When I Need You by singer Leo Sayer.

Dowden, who disclosed her cancer diagnosis in May 2023, which was subsequently followed by chemotherapy and a mastectomy, said: "I am so happy I could burst."

Head judge Shirley Ballas told the dancer: "Amy, you're home where you belong and I have to say that choreography was absolutely outstanding."

Dowden announced in February that she would return to the show this year, after a mastectomy and chemotherapy left her with “no evidence of disease” following tests.

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Speaking of her return to training ahead of performing live, she told the PA news agency: “I’m absolutely loving it, JB’s been the perfect comeback for me.

“I’m just back in my happy place doing what I love most. I think it’s going to be just really lovely, because it’s going to be beautiful for my family, because they struggled just as much as I did having to watch me go through it.

"Last year’s Strictly was a tough watch for them, because it was a reminder of exactly what we were going through. It’s going to be one big celebration, this whole series for me.”

Gill, meanwhile, said he felt the pair’s chemistry was “very strong”.

The 37-year-old said: “For me, I think it’s just trusting Amy, she’s the pro for a reason, I trust her judgment.

“We talk a lot, and I think our chemistry is very strong, even from the outset. So, you know, just trusting her decisions, and obviously we will come up with stuff together, and then once we’ve decided it, that’s it, and we go and execute that, so that’s my biggest focus in that respect.”

Gill said training had been “mind-blowing and eye-opening” as he had found ballroom dancing to be “completely alien” in comparison to the choreography he performed while dancing with JLS.

The Croydon-born singer said: “In the first few days, it was mind-blowing and eye-opening, because it was so completely alien.

“I went home to my wife (professional dancer Chloe Tangney) and just said, this is what I was doing, and going through the counts, and she was like ‘what on earth is that? It doesn’t even make any sense’.

“It took a while to sort of get into the swing of those sorts of things, but the body of course is going through lots of different things as well.“