Strictly Come Dancing: Amy Dowden to miss Saturday’s show as Lauren Oakley stands in

Strictly Come Dancing pro Amy Dowden will miss Saturday’s show after she fell ill during filming at the weekend.

Fellow professional dancer Lauren Oakley will take her place, pairing up with Dowden’s celebrity partner JB Gill.

A Strictly Come Dancing spokesperson said: “Amy Dowden MBE is doing much better and the Strictly family send her love and wish her well.

“She is delighted that fellow professional dancer, Lauren Oakley, is able to step in for rehearsals and to perform in Saturday’s show for JB Gill’s couple’s choice dance. We are all hopeful that Amy will be back to dance with JB next week.”

It had previously been announced that Oakley would train on Monday with Gill, a former member of the boyband JLS.

But the BBC confirmed the pair will now stay together for the rest of the week, including their televised performance on Saturday evening and the results show broadcast on Sunday.

Dowden collapsed backstage during Saturday night’s main show. An ambulance was called to Elstree Studios in Borehamwood on Saturday when Dowden began feeling unwell.

She had returned to the Strictly line-up this year, having missed the 2023 series after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

A spokesperson for the dancer said the ambulance “was called as a precaution” and that she was now “feeling much better”.

Oakley, who does not have a celebrity partner this year, joined the BBC show in 2022.

Last year, Oakley was partnered with Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy. The pair finished in eighth place.

Gill and Dowden received a score of 32 on Saturday night after performing a foxtrot to Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader.

Dowden did not appear in Sunday evening’s results show as she was taken to hospital before it was filmed.

The dancer was initially diagnosed with stage three breast cancer aged 32 in May 2023, after finding a lump in her breast the day before she went on her honeymoon.

The now-34-year-old was diagnosed again with “another type of cancer” later that same year and began chemotherapy.

She returned to hospital in August 2024 for further tests, as doctors were concerned about abnormalities in her breast after a check-up. She was later given the all-clear.

Dowden also has Crohn’s disease – a lifelong condition which causes parts of the digestive system to become inflamed – and has previously spoken about its toll on her health.