Strolling through bluebell strewn gardens in the spring sunshine Cheryl Fergison looks the very picture of happiness and health.
“I’d gone for a regular smear test - which had been clear - but I’d started having backache and then I began spotting blood, which wasn’t normal for me. “I remember thinking my son will be alright because he can always see his mum on celluloid; I’m captured forever even if I’m gone.” “Cheryl is the strongest, most amazing person I have ever met. In everything she was going through she still found time to care for me and for Alex - that’s one of the reasons I love her so much.”
“I can hear her now saying ‘come on darling, how are you feeling? You know you can get through this’. Cheryl says Linda Henry, who played Shirley Carter in the soap, was also a huge support while Steve McFadden - “he’s like a big brother to me” - arranged for her to stay in his Cornish home so she could recuperate after her hysterectomy.
“They looked into it. They had trouble getting hold of my notes but, when they did and they looked at them it turned out the initial treatment had got all the cancer after all." She cycles regularly on the prom in Blackpool, has her sights set on losing weight and is eating well - she reveals Yassine is an excellent cook.
“Then, outside the airport, my suitcase fell over. A hand came out to pick it up and it was Yass. We locked eyes. It was then I thought ‘I am going to marry you.”