Amy Dowden: Cancer survivor moved to tears by Strictly appearance

A breast cancer patient has said she was moved to tears after Amy Dowden's surprise Strictly appearance last week.

The dancer, from Caerphilly, went on the show without a wig and has since spoken of the "trauma" of losing her hair following cancer treatment.

Charlotte Walker, 51, from Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, said she was "so proud" of Amy, who she first met after featuring on her Dare to Dance TV show.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer a week after filming in August 2022.

"For her to go on TV last week, without a wig, I was so proud of her. She made me cry and everybody else I know cry," Charlotte said, adding that losing her own hair was "the most heart-breaking feeling".

After filming Dare to Dance she remained friends with Amy, who is also a patron of the Tenovus Cancer Care charity, which Charlotte said helped her massively through her journey.

After her diagnosis, Charlotte had surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is now on medication for up to 10 years to try to prevent it returning.

"Losing your hair becomes worse than the fact you've got the cancer, because suddenly you feel like 'now I'm going to look like a patient'," she said.

"It just starts to come out in clumps and you then get obsessed with it, because you're sort of pulling it out and thinking 'oh my goodness, there's another clump, there's another clump'.

"Like Amy, I decided that I needed to take control, because it was breaking me basically."

"Walking out with a 'chemotherapy hairdo' - a shaved head or a bald head, whatever you want to call it - is major, and you know what, there's nothing wrong with it," said Charlotte.

"What I was so proud of, it shows other people that you don't need hair to define you, it doesn't have to define you.

"If you look back at pictures of Amy on strictly last week, you don't look and say, 'oh there's a bald head', you look and you say, 'gosh, look at her beautiful smile, her beautiful dress', she is incredible."

Following their recent friendship, Amy had a surprise for Charlotte - tickets to Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday.

"I'm going strictly! I'm absolutely thrilled. I cannot wait to go, I bought a new dress so I'm going to wear lots of sparkles," said Charlotte.

Georgia O'Connell, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 aged 35, said she hoped Amy's Strictly appearance would inspire others going through similar experiences.

"It's been a bit of a whirlwind... it was everything at once, new motherhood and cancer all came hand-in-hand," said Georgia, from Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, whose diagnosis came shortly after the birth of her first son.

She said she was "so glad" to see Amy on Strictly without a wig due to the stigma many women face following cancer treatment.

Georgia said she had long blonde hair down to her waist before it started to fall out following "gruelling" chemotherapy treatment.

"There's such a stigma around losing your hair, as a woman particularly… you look in the mirror and you're like 'who the hell is that looking back at me?'," she said.

"I had lost control, basically, when you get your diagnosis your control goes out the window, you feel completely helpless."

After her hair initially began to fall out, Georgia said she wanted "take control of it instead of it controlling me".

She asked her parents to shut down the family hair salon and gathered her extended family to take part in the process of shaving her head.

"So everybody piled around my parents' salon and I asked them all to shave a strip of my head, which they did… and we took control, it was extremely liberating."

She added: "You do have to own it, and Amy did."

Judi Rhys, of Tenovus Cancer Care, said the charity was "so proud" to have Amy as their patron.

"Her selfless determination to raise awareness of breast cancer, following her own diagnosis and during her treatment, has been nothing short of remarkable," she said.

"We are sure the positive messages Amy has delivered have made a huge difference and been a source of inspiration and strength to many people on the same journey.

"We wish Charlotte and Amy all the best for the future, and hope Charlotte has a fab-u-lous time in the Strictly Come Dancing studio this weekend!"