Danniella: My cancer battle after collapse
SHE HAS TURNED HER LIFE AROUND
KERRY drove best mate Danniella Westbrook to hospital before the ex-eastender was diagnosed with cancer.
Danniella told how she rang Kerry after she collapsed alone in her shower with heavy bleeding.
Docs in Spain later diagnosed womb cancer and she will have a hysterectomy next month.
Danniella, who reveals her cancer battle today, said: “I called Kerry and said, ‘I think I’m going to die’. She said, ‘I’m on my way. Stay on the phone’.
“She had driven from her place in Sussex to my caravan in St Osyth in Essex and got there in an hour and a half to get me to hospital. At first we thought it was septicaemia but when we got to the hospital they mentioned my addiction.
“I couldn’t believe it and Kerry went mad.
“She said, ‘My mate is here and passing out and you are asking her about her addiction. Fair enough if she was whacked out of her brains but she is ill’.
“They then kept me in overnight under the Mental Health Act. But they didn’t treat me for what I was in for.”
Following her collapse, Danniella returned to her home in Spain to see her doctor.
“That’s when I started to realise what was happening to my body. They said it’s cancerous behind the uterus wall and that’s why it’s not being detected,” she sighed, clearly upset at how long it took to get the diagnosis.
“He said you will need a full hysterectomy and laser treatment. So I came back to my doctor in Epping, Essex. “She confirmed it and now they are removing my uterus.
“I know my mum got fantastic treatment at the Royal London years ago so I wanted to get my treatment from the NHS.”
Her mother was diagnosed with the same condition before being successfully treated. But Danniella, 45, who played Sam Mitchell in Eastenders, faces an anxious wait to find out if her cancer has spread.
The mum of two, who has battled cocaine addiction, is speaking out to encourage women to have smear tests. She hadn’t undergone such a test for years, meaning an opportunity may have been missed to detect her cancer sooner.
Danniella’s case echoes that of her pal Jade Goody who died of cervical cancer in 2009 aged 27.