Yahoo News EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison on why she "kept quiet" on cancer diagnosis
EastEnders actor Cheryl Fergison has opened up about why she "kept quiet" about her cancer diagnosis.
Cheryl, who played Heather Trott in the BBC One soap between 2007 and 2012, was told she had Stage Two womb cancer in 2015, but only spoke publicly about it at the end of last month.
Appearing on today's (May 8) episode of Loose Women, Cheryl told the panel that: "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.'"
When asked why she wanted to go public with her diagnosis now, the actor said that: "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.
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"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."
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
If you would like more information or support about living with cancer or treatment, please click here for guidance from Macmillan Cancer Support, or click here to learn more from Stand Up to Cancer.
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