Ex-EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has finally shared her secret battle with womb cancer.
For years, Cheryl kept her diagnosis under wraps and wanted to deal with it privately. Cheryl has now explained how her former cast mates got her through the most terrifying years of her life.
In an interview with the Mirror, the Heather Trott actress told the publication how she was first diagnosed in 2015. Cheryl, 58, had to have a hysterectomy, had early onset of the menopause, and found out she wouldn’t be able to have children with her husband.
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Cheryl has been with Yassine for 12 years and he is 20 years her junior. But she now believes that it is the right time to talk about it. The star said: “Yes, there were some dark moments when I thought: ‘Am I going to die?’
(Image: Tim Merry/Mirror Express)
“Am I going to leave my husband without a wife, my son without a mum? But I am strong and I’d knock those thoughts away. I was determined that it wasn’t going to beat me.
“I’d gone for a regular smear test – which had been clear – but I’d started having a lot of backache and then I began spotting blood, which wasn’t normal for me. I had been fitted with a coil to help with very heavy periods but somehow I just knew something didn’t feel right”.
When she eventually found out she had Stage Two cancer of the womb, she said it was like “an out of body experience”. Cheryl added: “I was in absolute shock; stunned to the core. I couldn’t believe the doctor was talking about me.”
(Image: Tim Merry/Mirror Express)
Cancer Research UK claims around 75% of women who are diagnosed with Stage Two cancer of the womb will survive 5 years or more after diagnosis. However, the statistics didn’t prevent her from thinking ‘why me?’
The actress chose to delay telling the then 16-year-old Alex, her son from her marriage to her first husband, Jamshed Saddiqi who she parted ways with in 2008, as it was during his school exams.
(Image: BBC)
At the time, Cheryl told a few EastEnders colleagues that she trusted such as Barbara Windsor, June Brown and Steve McFadden as well as Paul O’Grady and Julian Clary. She claimed the support “meant the world” to her.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
