Welsh Strictly Come Dancing star Strictly Come Dancing's Welsh dancer Amy Dowden and the story behind her success has kept her health battle secret, but has now decided to speak out for the first time about having Crohn's disease.
The professional dancer, from Caerphilly , said she doesn't want "sympathy" but has spoken out to help others who are suffering with the disease.
She also described the impact it has had on her career, including being sick in between dances during tour performances.
But for Amy, the show goes on.
Welsh Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden is back for 2019
Crohn's is described by the NHS as a lifelong condition in which parts of the digestive system become inflamed.
People with the disease commonly experience phases of intense abdominal pain, severe vomiting, exhaustion and bloody diarrhoea, among other symptoms.
Amy, 27, was diagnosed with the condition when she was a child, but did not reveal she had it when she joined Strictly, because she "didn't want to be known as 'Amy with Crohn's", she told Hello! magazine.
Amy caught the dancing bug at the age of eight after winning a dance competition while on holiday in Cornwall and has won the title of British National Champion , making her one of the highest-ranked Ballroom and Latin dancers in the UK.
She said: "I wanted to establish myself as 'Amy the dancer' first. But I've done two seasons on the show now, and I think it's important to speak out.
"It will be a relief that people will finally know, but I don't want any sympathy. It doesn't define me, it's just part of me, and I want this to be a positive story."
Dowden, who has been paired with comic Brian Conley and actor Danny John-Jules during her time on Strictly, said that she has so far only confided in a handful of her co-stars about her illness, including professional dancers Oti Mabuse and Dianne Buswell.
"I didn't want any sympathy, but there's been days when I've not been myself and returned home from rehearsals and been really unwell," she said.
"People are often shocked by my day-to-day, but for me it's just normal."
She added: "There are occasions when I'm on tour, like the other week on Here Come The Girls, when I'm being sick in between the dances.
"The theatre wanted to call an ambulance. But the performance must go on. I come out and put a smile on my face. It won't stop me."
Strictly Come Dancing's Welsh dancer Amy Dowden and the story behind her success
Dowden, who is working with the charity Crohn's and Colitis UK, said she will keep an eye on her symptoms in the run-up to her wedding day to her professional dance partner Ben Jones next summer.
She said: "Obviously leading up to it I need to make sure that if there's a symptom I'm on top of it."
The couple have been dancing together since Amy was 21 and won the British Championships in November 2016.
But their success wasn't without hard graft. Amy worked part-time at an office in Caerphilly until she eventually moved up to the Midlands to be closer to Ben.
She also taught dance lessons at schools and zumba classes. The pair even flew to LA to be taught by respected dance teacher Richard Porter every eight weeks during training. The pair also run their own dance studio, Art in Motion Dance Academy in Dudley.
The full interview appears in Hello! magazine, out now.
