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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Sam Cook

EastEnders viewers 'heartbroken' as BBC show prepares to kill off popular character

EastEnders viewers have taken to social media to share their 'heartbreak' after watching Tuesday’s, May 23 episode. Fan favourite character Lola Pearce Brown, who is played by actress Danielle Harold, is set to lose her battle with a brain tumour in scenes that air next week.

The latest episode of the BBC soap opera ended with Lola telling husband Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) that she wanted to be baptised. The character’s health has significantly declined in recent weeks.

Lola was first diagnosed with a brain tumour, which was later confirmed to be terminal, in October last year. Actress Danielle leaves EastEnders after making her first appearance in 2011.

Read more: Bobby Davro breaks silence after death of 'beautiful' fiancee

“Lola is breaking my heart,” one viewer wrote following Tuesday’s episode. A second echoed: “Not gonna lie, it’s really hard for me to watch the Lola storyline.”

Lola was visited by the Walford Reverend in Tuesday's episode (BBC)

A third said: “The scenes with Lola are the most heartbreaking ever...and i think it's going to get worse .. hankies are at the ready.” And a fourth wrote: “Lola's cancer storyline is a bit much for me personally. The actress is doing an amazing job & deserves her flowers but it's difficult to watch some of these scenes.”

Elsewhere, people praised Danielle’s performance as Lola with one person writing: “Danielle Harold is absolutely incredible as Lola.” Another person added: “Danielle Harold is gonna SWEEP at the soap awards next weekend and I am SOOO ready for it!”

The Mirror reports how Danielle revealed all on the "difficult" scenes and confessed the "heartbreaking" storyline had been "tough" to film. She said: "It’s been really difficult filming these last few scenes over because it does get really tough, especially towards the end.

"It’s such a heartbreaking diagnosis and it’s not nice to watch or to play, so working with the charities has been so important for us because we want to portray Lola’s diagnosis both accurately and sensitively while also raising awareness to hopefully make a change."

EastEnders is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.

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