Former EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison has revealed she privately underwent treatment for womb cancer.
The 58-year-old, known for playing Heather Trott on the BBC One soap from 2007 until 2012, opened up for the first time about her experience of being diagnosed in 2015 in a new interview.
The soap star also discussed the challenges of undergoing a hysterectomy and experiencing early onset menopause due to the treatment before she got the all-clear.
Fergison told OK! Magazine that she visited her GP after she began spotting blood and having backache, which led to her being referred for further tests and a biopsy.
She later received a stage two cancer diagnosis which she said was an “absolute shock”.
The actress underwent a full hysterectomy and a course of radiotherapy.
She said: “Any thought of Yass and I having a child together had been taken away.
“We may not have gone down that route, of course, but we’d lost the ability to choose.”
Fergison, who has a son Alex from a previous marriage, married her husband Yassine Al-Jermoni in 2011.
The former Celebrity Big Brother star added: “It brought on early menopause too. In terms of how I saw myself as a woman, it felt as if it had all come to an end.”
The actress revealed she only told a few close friends about her cancer diagnosis, including former EastEnders colleagues Dame Barbara Windsor, June Brown and Steve McFadden as well as the late comedian Paul O’Grady.
She said their “support meant the world” to her, recalling how Dame Barbara offered to support her financially.
“Barb said ‘Right, darling, how much? How much are your bills and your mortgage because we’d like to support you’,” Fergison recalled.
“I was in shock and said no but Barb was insistent – I wasn’t earning. They sat there and wrote a cheque.
“I was sobbing but Barbara hugged me and said: ‘Don’t worry. We’re always going to be here for you’.”
The actress revealed she had been worried that a new bout of backache was a sign that her cancer had returned, so she underwent more tests which showed her initial treatment had “got all the cancer”.