EastEnders star Heather Peace gives heartbreaking cancer update
EastEnders star Heather Peace has revealed she and her wife Ellie Dickinson are both battling breast cancer.
EastEnders star Heather Peace has revealed she and her wife are battling breast cancer.
The 50-year-old actress, who is best known for playing Eve Panesar-Unwin on the BBC soap, said her spouse Ellie Dickinson found a smaller "aggressive" lump, and had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy before Heather found a bigger lump and was diagnosed in October.
Heather - who is about to start radiotherapy following her surgery and chemotherapy in June - told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "Her breast cancer was a smaller aggressive lump so she had a lumpectomy and then radiotherapy.
"Of course then I come along with my 12cm lump, absolutely ginormous, and mastectomy, chemotherapy, just about to go into radiotherapy.
"She's like, 'Even that you have to do bigger.'
Heather's world changed completely after being diagnosed with the disease.
She explained: "I swear everybody looked at me, it might be my imagination, but I felt like a dead woman walking.
"I honestly did because it was so big and so quick that they told us and the gravity with which I was told."
The actress - who put off getting checked out because of her EastEnders filming schedule - feared breaking people's hearts with her diagnosis.
Heather - who has daughter Annie, 10, and eight-year-old twins Jesse and Lola with Ellie - admitted: "I looked at everything I'd done, everybody in my life, my kids, my wife, crazy amounts of stuff, and I felt, 'My goodness, I've really packed it in and it's OK. And actually, I'm a bit tired.'
"Those were my honest thoughts. My only concern was breaking anybody else's heart.
"I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that was the only thing that bothered me."
The former Waterloo Road star was relieved when scans showed her cancer had not spread, and she had a left breast mastectomy and reconstruction in November.
And now Heather - who said her marriage to Ellie is stronger than ever since they embarked on their cancer journeys - is determined to embrace every second of her life.
She added: "I need to live for the day.
"We've got our three kids. They're at that golden age. We're going on holiday for two weeks and that's been the thing that I've held on to since February, through this whole chemo journey.
"I just want to enjoy them and savour every second."
