Emmerdale actress Leah Bracknell diagnosed with terminal lung cancer as fans raise funds
Former Emmerdale actress Leah Bracknell has terminal lung cancer.
The 52-year-old actress, who played Zoe Tate on the soap for 16 years, was given the news after being rushed to hospital last month.
Fans are now rallying to raise money for the star so that she can go to Germany to have treatment at a specialist clinic, and have already raised £18,000 in less than 12 hours.
Revealing the news on her GoFundMe page, Bracknell – real name Ali - told fans that, just a few weeks ago, she was feeling ‘fit and healthy’.
“Just over 5 weeks ago, I was feeling perfectly well, fit and healthy. Teaching yoga classes and workshops, it was a time of new beginnings: preparing to move house, youngest child fleeing the nest, and excited to be starting rehearsals for a comedy play, being back onstage, going on tour,” she wrote.
"But, it turns out that the universe had other plans. Life was about to be unexpectedly turned on its head.
“I began to feel breathless climbing stairs ... I just put it down to a bit of stress.
“My abdomen suddenly ballooned - and within a matter of a few days I looked heavily pregnant. I could barely walk or breathe. Then, one Saturday night at the beginning of September I ended up in A&E.”
After being examined by doctors, the actress was told that she had stage 4 lung cancer, which was considered to be inoperable.
“However, the bad news is that I have been diagnosed with lung cancer, stage 4. In their opinion, that means it's terminal, not curable, not operable,” she wrote.
"A fairly brutal and bleak diagnosis but one I am determined to challenge and see from the perspective of "a glass half full", going against a lifetime of pessimism, negativity and fear!!!!”
Despite the horrific diagnosis, Bracknell is staying unbelievably positive and isn’t giving up.
“By the way, please imagine me writing this and speaking in quite an upbeat and cheerful voice. Do NOT imagine me sitting here writing through a veil of tears. I am not. Or feeling sorry for myself. I am not (yet),” she wrote.
“My priority is getting well and strong, so that I can continue to endeavour to be a good, mother, daughter, wife, or at least the best I can be.
"My priority is to defy expectation. My priority is to love, to laugh, and, as Bob (Dylan) said, to 'keep on keepin' on'.”
Fans have now raised the impressive sum overnight and it continues to grow.
