Cheryl Fergison has revealed that an EastEnders co-star offered to pay her bills during her cancer battle.
During Wednesday’s (May 8) episode of ITV’s Loose Women, the former soap star opened up on her 2015 womb cancer diagnosis, after she publicly shared the health update last week.
Speaking to Christine Lampard, Linda Robson, Denise Welch and Kelle Bryan live in the studio, Cheryl explained why she had kept the news private until now, saying: “I kept it quiet for a long time because I had to process a lot of it. Also, in our profession it’s difficult because if you’re not working, then you’re not earning any money.
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“You have to keep working. So, for us, you know, it was putting on a smile once I’d had the operation [and] keep getting well. There was a lot of stuff that was psychologically happening to me at that point, when I discovered that I got it. It’s only up until sort of the end of last year that I managed to kind of go enough is enough, now stop this, ‘I need to just crack on’.”
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
On why she wanted to speak out, Cheryl explained: “For me, it’s about letting women know about what they should do with their bodies. We don’t listen to ourselves enough. In general, people don’t listen to themselves enough. As women, we’re so busy dealing with everybody else, we don’t seem to have time for ourselves. So, basically when something happens to you, you need to take heed of it and you need to act on it. I think the thing is, if I hadn’t acted on what was going on with me, I don’t feel like I would have been here today.”
Discussing the psychological impact of the diagnosis, Cheryl revealed to the panel: “It was washing bits of my body that were… Basically trying to wash things away. The thing is, I mean, we all try to control our own body in some way, we all try to do that. But actually, sometimes we can harm ourselves more by trying to do something rather than going to get the help. It wasn’t every day but it was continuous over a period of years..”
(Image: BBC)
Cheryl went on to open up on the support she’s received from her famous friends. She said: “Loads of support, my family, my husband, my lovely husband, my son. Steve [McFadden], Barbara [Windsor] and Linda Henry, and you know, Paul O’Grady, everybody, they were just amazing.”
She shared one particularly kind gesture during her treatment: “I remember Babs going to me ‘Come on, you got to come around to my house, to the Mews’. So, we went around there and Barbara and Scott were there. I went to the toilet and I’d explained everything was going on and I was going to have my operation very soon.
“I came back and Scott was there with a chequebook and she went, ‘Right, how much are your bills then?’ and she literally wrote a cheque out to help me pay my bills and my mortgage. I just remember, just weeping, and you have people like this and people don’t know the generosity of people and what they do, it’s amazing. I’m forever grateful. Thank you Barbs, thank you Scott, you know Linda, Steve McFadden.”
Revealing she is now cancer free, Cheryl hinted at a stint in the I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! jungle telling the ITV panel: “I’d been there like a shot.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
