Former EastEnders star Samantha Womack has revealed that she is cancer free, just five months after revealing she had been diagnosed with the devastating disease
The actress who opened up about her health earlier this year has shared a string of updates with her social media followers since making her diagnosis public.
Now, the star who played Veronica 'Ronnie' Mitchell on the hit BBC One soap has shared how she is free of the disease and is "thankful" for her life.
Samantha, 50, was diagnosed with cancer five months ago but previously admitted that she had not spotted any symptoms and a random health check led to doctors discovering a "little shadow".
The actress said: "Now I'm just having some treatment as I go back to work, as a prevention – it was crazy, I was doing The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – the producers there were amazing and gave me time off.
"We're feeling a lot better than we were," she told OK! Magazine.
Reflecting on her ordeal, she added: "My treatment is ongoing for breast cancer, the surgery was quite difficult to recover from just because it's quite tender when you have lymph nodes removed, there's a few mobility issues at the beginning.
"The first round of chemotherapy was pretty hardcore really, it was quite toxic – we were lucky because I got to recover in Spain, Ollie and Wallie were picking me up from the airport in Valencia.
"It was in the middle of a thunderstorm and I'd just had the treatment and these guys picked me up."
Samantha explained that the "turnaround" for her diagnosis was "quite quick" after having an ultrasound scan out of precaution, admitting she was "lucky".
Speaking to This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield last month, Samantha said: "At that point, it could be anything, then I had further investigations and then that diagnosis."
Samantha went on to add: "I was lucky, it was less than two centimetres, I had a lumpectomy, which is just a piece of tissue removed and five lymph nodes.
"The mad thing about cancer when you have it, is you understand there are so many different roads, different diagnoses, it is a terrifying world.
"It's terrifying at the beginning but if there was ever a time to have it, there are so many new treatments now that are changing the face of cancer, it's amazing."
Samantha shared her news in August following the death of Grease legend, Olivia Newton-John.
Reflecting on why she decided to pay tribute to Olivia while sharing her own diagnosis, the Kingsman actress said: "I'd been with Olivia, just for dinner after a show I'd done, I played Sandy in Grease.
"It was just at the beginning of her diagnosis and what struck me was her journey had been 30 years and she was at the end and I was just at the beginning, and it took me back.
"I felt very moved by it, I thought, 'I want to share it, I want to talk to people, I want to put it out there' and it was amazing, the love that came back. I felt empowered by it."
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