As she prepares for the 2026 series on Strictly Come Dancing, Amy Dowden has confessed how she was ready to quit the show after breast cancer wrecked her body and her confidence.

Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023 and has subsequently undergone chemotherapy and two mastectomies, the most recent in November last year.

After months of gruelling treatment, the Welsh beauty became so physically and emotionally broken that she believed she had to walk away from the BBC ballroom for good.

But while cancer had shaken her confidence, it was fellow Strictly dancer Carlos Gu who refused to let her give up her dream. He became her biggest cheerleader, delivering the tough love she desperately needed and convinced her she still belonged on the dance floor.

In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, the inseparable friends reveal how the darkest chapter of Amy’s life forged an unbreakable bond.

“I returned to Strictly, but I was feeling all the effects of chemotherapy, cancer, and I had no self-confidence,” admits 35-year-old Amy, referring to the 2024 series which she was forced to quit after a few weeks because of illness.

“I’d been pulled out of Strictly and I was ready to hang up my dancing shoes, but it was Carlos and Ben, my husband, who gave me that tough love, that motivation to make sure I didn’t.

“If it wasn’t for them, I truly was gonna hang up my dancing shoes. It was only then I really knew how low I was in my life. I was at an ultimate low.

“My husband and Carlos were the ones who got me my confidence back, ensured I could do it, made sure that cancer didn’t take my dancing away from me along with everything else.

“There's not many people who will sacrifice themselves to help a loved one like that.”

Celebrity Hunted

That friendship bond has been tested further during filming of their new TV adventure after the pair signed up to Channel 4’s Celebrity Hunted.

Alongside five other pairs of celebrities, they spent two weeks filming last year dodging expert hunters, sleeping in strangers’ homes, gatecrashing Craig Revel Horwood’s birthday bash and spectacularly falling out over a slice of carrot cake.

But none of the stress they faced on the run came close to the emotional battle they’d had to save Amy’s career. Carlos admits there was never any question about standing beside his friend in 2024 and beyond.

After losing both his grandmother and a cousin to cancer, he understood only too well what Amy was facing and naturally became one of the people she leaned on most. The experience transformed their friendship from close colleagues into family.

Carlos says: “The main reason we’re so bonded together is the moment she had cancer, I felt it because my granny and my very close cousin, they both died from cancer. That was the moment that made me realise, ‘Oh, I really love her’. I was devastated.

“For me, as an adult, we encounter so many people and you just know if you’re going to click with this person or not.

“I clicked with Amy on so many humans level. When I first came to the UK, apart from the friends that I already had when I was in China, Amy was one of the people who really helped me. She gave me the feeling that she supported me, she helped me with everything. It wasn’t just words, she used her own actions.

“Just the way she treats me and the way she talks to me and the way she helps me, that makes me know that this is going to be my friend for life. So of course I was going to be there for her when she needed me the most. I love her.”

Amy and Carlos are one of six pairs of famous faces who swapped the glitz and glamour of their showbiz lives to become fugitives hell bent on escaping capture for more than two weeks.

Cameras capture their every move as they travel the country trying to evade the Hunters, a team of ex police and security experts.

Treatment for Amy

While they were determined to have a laugh on the run, for Amy there was a bigger driving force. The show is in aid of Stand Up To Cancer and she was determined to show the reality of life after diagnosis. While she is back on her feet, Amy still has to get regular treatment to keep the disease at bay.

And remarkably she allowed the cameras to follow her to get her chemotherapy injection while they were on the run. Talking about why she let cameras capture such a private moment, Amy admits: “It was important to show the reality of cancer.

“I think people think that once you've rung the bell, your cancer journey is over. I was stupid enough to think that, but it really, really isn't. Unfortunately, a cancer diagnosis is like a life sentence, basically. I hope me showing this starts conversations with people watching at home.”

While it might have been an educational moment for Amy, it was a turning point for Carlos who was considering quitting the show because he was struggling with life on the run.

But his friend’s strength motivated him to keep going. He says: “It was hard to see Amy have this treatment, especially when it came in our journey.

“The longer you stay on the run, it's hard because you don't have enough sleep, you don't have good food, you're always constantly on the run.

“But what kept me the most sane, actually, is Amy. She was the only reason that I coped in the game because there's a time I was like, ‘I think I'm done, I can't do it anymore. I'm struggling emotionally and physically’.

“But looking at her and what she's been through in the past few years, she's giving absolutely everything she has, that really inspired me in the middle of the run.

"I've always seen her as an inspiration, but that moment particularly in time, she gave me the faith that I'm going to do this no matter how hard it is.”

Life on the run wasn’t all emotional drama, the pair also had a laugh. And some of the funniest scenes came when they turned up at Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood’s lavish birthday garden party at his country home.

Craig happily welcomed them in before confidently explaining he knew the perfect escape route if the hunters arrived.

They soon needed to make a hasty escape but Craig’s directions proved rather optimistic.

Carlos says: “He told us we could escape out the back of his house across a little stream that was only as deep as our knees.

“And then when we get to the stream, it was not up to our knees, it was up to our chest!

“But before we got into the stream, there's 10 metres of mud and I couldn't get out of it, I was sinking in the mud for at least 10 minutes!”

Amy laughs: “I'm not joking, I laughed that much I weed myself! He had to use his sandals on his hands to push himself out!

“My husband was waiting for us on the street and when we got to him, we were covered in mud, we were soaking wet and he was like, ‘What the hell happened to you two?’

“Even the film crew were covered in mud. Literally, they all had their clothes ruined.

"It's all thanks to Craig Revel Horwood going, ‘Yeah, I've got this way for you to escape!’ Thanks Craig!”

The pressure of life on the run also brought out a very different side to their friendship, with Amy joking they became “more like brother and sister” than ever before.

Fans can expect tears, tantrums and relentless rows.

And there was one spectacular bust-up over a piece of carrot cake. After an exhausting day travelling across the country, Carlos desperately wanted to nip to Starbucks for a piece of cake, but Amy thought leaving the hotel would almost certainly get them caught.

Amy explains: “The biggest row we had was over carrot cake! We sat in the shower, with it turned off, just sobbing!

"We'd had a very long, stressful day. It was the morning after my chemo injection, so I'm already very tired and feeling low.

“We get to the hotel and in my eyes we're not going to leave that room because it's too risky.

“Carlos can see Starbucks from the window and he really fancied a nice coffee and their carrot cake. I don't blame him because we're starving at this point.

"It's been a long stressful day, very hot, we've done a lot of walking, travelling, you name it. But I couldn't understand why we would risk going to Starbucks.”

Carlos adds: “I needed something sweet to boost me up and I really wanted a carrot cake!

“She said, 'you really can’t'. I said, ‘please just let me go get it’.

“She was like, ‘why don't you go get your carrot cake? I'm done’. Then she went to the bathroom and cried!

Amy laughs: “I was like, ‘Just get your carrot cake, I don't care. Come and catch me.’ And I ran into the bathroom and shut the door. I was crying my eyes out.

"And then Carlos comes in and he's like, ‘I don't know why I said that, I don’t even like carrot cake!’

“No joke, we laid on the floor for half an hour sobbing to each other!

“As a friendship, I think we experienced everything. We're now more like brother and sister after this experience together.

“We felt like we knew each other, but, gosh, did we learn a hell of a lot more during our experience on Celebrity Hunted!”

Looking back, they can laugh about it now but they admit the experience left them feeling like they’d “gone feral”.

But it also “restored our faith in humanity” thanks to all the members of the public that came to their aid.

“This show taught me so much about humanity,” explains Carlos.

“It humbled me. It makes you realise, wow, the world is still filled with a huge amount of kindness in people.”

Amy adds: “It restores your faith in humanity, absolutely. And actually, the people we met along the way all had amazing stories as well, whether they'd been through cancer themselves or had Crohn's disease.

“They'd all had their own different or difficult journeys in a way that we could relate to them. But everyone was just so kind and without those strangers, we would not have got past the first day!”

* Celebrity Hunted starts Monday 3 August, 9pm on Channel 4.

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