Shirley Ballas grateful for mammogram advice from Amy Dowden

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas was inspired by Amy Dowden to undergo a recent mammogram.

In conversation with The Sun, the 'Queen of Latin' revealed that she's had three biopsies from tissue in her left breast following some advice from Strictly pro Dowden, who has spent the past year being treated for breast cancer.

"My dear student and friend Amy said to me, 'You must never miss a mammogram,'" said Ballas. "So when this particular invite came in I could have put it off until the summer when it is a bit quieter. But I'm glad I didn't.

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The TV star added that while she regularly does self checks, the mammogram scanners can detect abnormalities much sooner, and a recent appointment found 'lumpy tissue'. This led to a further 3D mammogram and a biopsy, and while she was ultimately given the all-clear, she admitted that she had found the whole process 'very emotional',

This comes after ex-Strictly contestant and Dragons' Den favourite Sara Davies spoke of her influential role in Dowden having chemotherapy.

Talking to Loose Women presenter Ruth Langsford, she shared: "I was with her when she was making that decision. And I remember, because she'd had the mastectomy straight away, she kind of felt like 'well, they've taken it away, so that's finished, that's the end of it. I don't want to have chemo, I don't want to lose my hair, I won't be able to dance on Strictly this year.'

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"But the doctors were saying she should, and I said, 'Amy, if the doctors are saying you should, you really need to do it. This is a life-changing thing, if this is what they're saying you really need to embrace it.'

"The chemotherapy was as terrifying as the other C word she was dealing with in her life."

Strictly Come Dancing will return to BBC One in September.