EastEnders' Samantha Womack is cancer free five months after diagnosis
5 December 2022, 11:26 | Updated: 5 December 2022, 11:33
EastEnders star Samantha Womack has revealed she is breast cancer free just five months after undergoing chemotherapy.
Former EastEnders star Samantha Womack has revealed that she is cancer free.
The 50-year-old - who played Ronnie Mitchell in the BBC soap - revealed she had been diagnosed with the disease five months ago.
Samantha previously admitted that she hadn’t spotted any symptoms and a random health check led to doctors discovering a "little shadow".
But after being given the all-clear, she told OK! magazine: "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.
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 mum-of- two went on to say her first round of chemotherapy was ‘pretty hardcore’ and ‘toxic’ but she was lucky enough to recover in Spain.
Back in August, Samantha shared her news in August following the death of Grease legend, Olivia Newton-John.
She said at the time: "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."
Samantha went on to chat to This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.
"At that point, it could be anything, then I had further investigations and then that diagnosis,” she said.
"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."
Read more
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