Former Eastenders actress Samantha Womack has revealed she is cancer-free just months after sharing the news of her devastating diagnosis. The star revealed in August she had breast cancer in a heartfelt Instagram post that was inspired by the tragic death of Grease star Olivia Newton-John, who had also battled with the disease for 30 years.
Samantha, who played Ronnie Mitchell in the long-running BBC One soap, shared the incredible news she is free of cancer in an exclusive interview with OK! Magazine to mark her milestone 50th birthday. Speaking alongside her actor partner Oliver Farnworth, Samantha said the greatest gift she could receive is entering a new decade cancer-free.
After months of gruelling chemotherapy and surgery, Samantha says she is now so happy to be rid of the disease she keeps "bursting into tears". She previously revealed she had not suffered any obvious symptoms before she received the life-changing diagnosis in August and it was only during a "random check" doctors noticed a shadow on her right breast.
The actress, who is mother to Benjamin, 21, and Lily, 17, from her previous marriage to Mark Womack, said she was left "reeling" from the news, and had to fit in a mammogram and biopsy between her matinee and evening theatre performances. The further checks found a 2cm tumour and she was given the terrifying news she had stage one to two breast cancer which had spread to one of her lymph nodes.
Fortunately, Samantha, who is playing the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London, has a huge support network who have been by her side during her journey, including boyfriend Oliver, 40. She feared he would no longer find her attractive as cancer attacked her "femininity", but she says he has been an incredible support.
“The thing with breast cancer, as a woman, it’s such a brutal attack on your femininity,” she says candidly. “Your breasts and your hair and all of those things they represent, the things that you hold on to as feeling attractive, but also make you feel feminine as a woman… It feels very brutal.
“I kept saying, ‘I don’t want you to find me ugly. I don’t want to be an embarrassment to you.’ Just silly things that you say, but they are feelings. And also, for me saying, ‘I don’t want to put you through this, why on God’s earth would you want to be with someone that’s going to be in and out of hospitals?!’ I didn’t know at the beginning how bad it was going to be.
“He kept saying to me, ‘You idiot, this is what I want, I want to be here with you. This is a privilege for me to be near you and you’re beautiful and I don’t give a s**t about your hair.’ I think it really took my breath away. I found that very emotional. I didn’t expect to feel such gratitude for someone for loving me just for me, rather than all the bits you think are important.”
She now says she is in a great place and has found greater appreciation for the small things in life. “I just feel really thankful and really grateful that I caught it when I did,” she says. “I feel very thankful for my life. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s almost like I can see the beauty in everything now – like everything feels special. I keep bursting into tears, because I’m happy.
“I think it [going through cancer] shifts your perspective and suddenly everything feels really important and really vital and you suddenly just appreciate everything.”
Oliver, who met Samantha just before lockdown in 2020, was the one who encouraged Samantha to open up about her battle. “He knew that I’m not very good at being vulnerable and I find it quite uncomfortable,” she explains. “He just kept saying, ‘It’s OK to not be OK.’ I was like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ And just kept pushing him away and ignoring it.”
Samantha decided to go public with her diagnosis in August this year, following the news of the death of her acting hero Olivia Newton-John, who she had dinner with in London years ago.
She told OK! Magazine: “It really affected me and I couldn’t catch my breath. I felt very moved by the cycle of that – both of us going through the same thing at different stages. That’s when I decided to share it. I suddenly thought, ‘I don’t want to keep this secret any more. I don’t want to feel shame. I want to reach out and tell as many people as I can and get as much help as I can and I don’t want it to be this dirty secret.’”
Luckily for Samantha, her prognosis is looking good and her surgery was also successful. She is soon due to meet consultants to discuss further treatment to prevent the cancer from returning. “Breast cancer is tenacious – it’s clever,” she says. “These cells are smart and they find their way through your system. You have to really attack your treatment.”
Samantha is now determined to help others going through cancer. “I just desperately want to have some kind of wellness retreat,” she says. “We’ve got apartments attached to our house, so I like the idea of something where you’re giving back to people who are recovering from treatment.
“Nature feels so important to be around when you’re having difficult diagnoses. If we can offer that to people and some kind of holistic retreat, that would feel really cool.”
