Amy Dowden was 'carried off stage' amid Crohn's Disease flare-up on 'Strictly' tour

Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden had to be carried off stage by one of her co-stars amid an excruciating Crohn's Disease flare-up.

The 31-year-old performer revealed on Steph's Packed Lunch that she ended up in hospital and had to take time off from the tour to recover.

Read more: Amy Dowden worries Crohn's Disease could end her career

Crohn's Disease affects around 500,000 people in the UK and is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed, leading to symptoms including severe stomach pain, fatigue and diarrhoea.

Dowden said that on the day of her hospitalisation, she woke up with stomach pain and tiredness but attributed these things to the stress of the tour.

Watch: Amy Dowden talks Strictly Come Dancing

She said: "I got on the bus and all of my fellow pros know me and they could instantly see 'Amy's not well'.

"It got to the point where I was crying in pain. Aljaž [Škorjanec] whipped me up and carried me into the service station.

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"I managed to get my symptoms under control, we got to Manchester but slowly I deteriorated to the point where unfortunately they needed to call an ambulance straight after the matinee.

"Kai [Widdrington] carried me off the stage in the matinee in Manchester."

Dowden said she has "learned to accept" her condition over the years but confessed that, before she landed the Strictly Come Dancing job in 2017, she believed it would hold back her career.

She added: "I was applying for jobs and there are two boxes: 'do you have a criminal record' and 'do you have a chronic illness'. I knew as soon as I was ticking chronic illness, I wasn't going to be seen.

"When I got Strictly, it opened so many opportunities and I want to use my platform now to raise awareness, break the stigma and help others."

Read more: Strictly star Gorka Marquez shares health update

Dowden is now set to go on tour with her An Evening with Amy Dowden show, dancing alongside her fiancé Ben Jones.

The couple had been due to get married, but had to postpone their ceremony due to the pandemic and hope to tie the knot this year.

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