Amy Dowden shares her support for Kate Middleton and reveals the Princess of Wales’s diagnosis has ‘personally hit me hard’ as she remarks: ‘Cancer doesn’t discriminate’

Amy Dowden has addressed the news that Kate Middleton’s cancer has “hit her hard personally” as she shared her support with the princess on Friday evening.

The 42-year-old royal, who is married to Prince William and shares Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis, has been absent from public duties since January.

And on Friday night, Kate announced she is battling a form of the disease alone in a televised address from Windsor.

Amy, 33, who recently received the news that she is cancer-free after being diagnosed with breast cancer, shared her support for the royal, writing on Instagram: ‘The news has hit me hard personally as I have been dealing with so much our Princess! Cancer does not discriminate.

‘There is no textbook, right or wrong way to deal with diagnosis and treatment. It’s personal and I really hope everyone can #bekind and support our princess.”

Strictly dancer Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer in May last year and underwent a mastectomy in July, leaving her free from the BBC ballroom dancing competition in 2023 while she underwent treatment.

She added: ‘I was lucky enough to meet the Princess of Wales during my treatment, who was so kind, supportive and generous of her time. I send all my good wishes with treatment ahead and as always to everyone affected by cancer.’

Although Amy has been told she is cancer free, she will not be completely safe for the next five years and will still need treatment, especially as she has hormone fueled cancer.

The Princess of Wales had been away from public service for several weeks when she made the shocking announcement on Friday evening, but did not reveal which cancer she has.

Speaking from a bench surrounded by daffodils and spring blossoms, the future queen said: ‘I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank you for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding while I was recovering from surgery.

‘These have been incredibly difficult months for our entire family. But I have had a fantastic medical team that has taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful.

‘In January I had major abdominal surgery in London. And at the time it was thought that my condition was not cancerous.

‘The operation was successful. However, there had been tests for cancer after the operation.

‘Of course this came as a huge shock. And William and I have done everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.

‘As you can imagine this has taken time, it has taken me time to recover from major surgery to start my treatment.’

Meanwhile, Amy shared the great news that she is cancer-free last month, but it’s been a tough year for the star after she developed sepsis and I stopped responding after her first round of chemotherapy.

Speaking about Andy Coulson’s crisis What crisis? podcast, she revealed that doctors told her parents Gillian and Richard and her husband Ben that she was ‘unresponsive’ after going into septic shock.

Things got so bad that Amy’s mother was warned that her daughter would be unable to function for more than 16 hours before her organs began to fail.

“There was a lot to wrap my head around,” she said, discussing how the diagnosis and treatment had affected her mental health as she struggled with the loss of her hair and the severity of her illness.

When she was put in the ambulance to go to A&E, Amy recalled feeling “scared” because she had had a bone marrow injection that morning and had “no white blood cells,” which meant there was a risk of contracting an infection when she went to the hospital.

Amy revealed she was reluctant to go to hospital but was ‘encouraged’ by paramedics to get into the ambulance – and shortly afterwards she ‘took a turn’.

The dancer was immediately admitted with an infection and her family around her, but later that evening the doctors assured them that Amy was fine and they could go home.

However, when Amy’s husband called the hospital the next morning to ask how his wife was doing, he was told, “The doctor wants to see you.”

Ben, who was with Amy’s parents at the time, put the phone on speaker to hear the doctor’s update, but the news was devastating for the family.

When they were told their daughter had sepsis, Amy’s parents “lay on the floor” – because Amy’s aunt had died from the blood infection just a year earlier. The doctor also revealed that she had a blood clot in her lung and was ‘not responding’ to treatment.

Amy said: ‘My parents went into meltdown mode, Ben went into protection mode for them, and when they got to the hospital I wasn’t in the room.

‘I had an emergency CT scan and the doctor had just told me: my mother had to run away.

“My husband said he told me my heart rate and blood pressure were so low that I probably wouldn’t function for more than 16 hours, that my organs would fail. They thought I had gone into septic shock.’

Amy explained that the intensive care team was called in to care for her, but fortunately she began to respond to new antibiotics.

She remembers the moment she woke up with her family around her and said, “I saw the pain in my parents’ eyes, and I don’t think they’ve been the same since.

“It was so hard for them to see that, especially after what we went through with my aunt. And yeah, I don’t think they’ve been the same or will ever be the same again.’