Cheryl Fergison explains 'harmful' psychological symptom after cancer diagnosis

Former EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison has spoken out about her cancer diagnosis for the first time. The star revealed last week that she had been diagnosed with stage 2 womb cancer nine years ago.

The actress, 58, who played Heather Trott in the BBC soap until 2012, had to have a hysterectomy and went into early menopause following the diagnosis. In her first TV interview on ITV Loose Women, Cheryl confessed the disease had had a troubling psychological impact as she revealed the symptoms she had experienced.

Cheryl said: "I kept it quiet for a long time because I had to process a lot of it, and also in our profession it's difficult because if you're not working then you're not earning any money and you have to keep working. So for us it was pretty hard to smile once I'd had the operation...there was a lot of stuff that was psychologically happening to me at that point when I'd discovered that I'd got it.

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"It's only up until the end of last year that I'd managed to go, enough is enough, I need to stop this and I need to just crack on." Cheryl urged other women not worry about 'pestering' their doctors and to seek help straight away if they noticed a change. She warned: "The thing is, if I hadn't of acted on what was going on with me, I don't feel like I would have been here today."

Cheryl also spoke about the troubling psychological symptom she had suffered after being diagnosed. She explained she was scared as she knew she was 'harming' herself.

"It was washing bits of my body," Cheryl explained. "Trying to wash things away. We all try to control our own body in some way but actually sometimes we can harm ourselves..."

She added: "It wasn't every day but it was continuous over a period of time...I was actually hurting myself, I was harming myself in some way." Cheryl revealed she had had lots of support from her husband and Yassine Al-Jermoni and their son Alex, 24.

Speaking about her symptoms that first lead her to a diagnosis, Cheryl added: "What happened was I had very bad backache and then I started to spot blood. I thought this is a bit strange because I shouldn't be doing this at this particular point." She explained that she had only received a clear smear test just three months earlier, but received the devastating diagnosis when she went back to the doctor. Cheryl continued: "It was about three months later that I got this spotting and I got this backache and it was terrible.

"It was the lower back and we all think we've got backache, take tablets, take tablets...but it didn't feel right. Within those three months between having a smear and going back to the doctor again, getting seen again, having a small biopsy, they told me I had stage 2 cancer in three months. So we don't normally have another smear test for three years."