EastEnders' Cheryl Fergison, 58, reveals Barbara Windsor paid for her mortgage ... trends now

EastEnders' Cheryl Fergison has revealed Dame Barbara Windsor paid for her mortgage after she struggled to pay the bills when she was diagnosed with stage two womb cancer. 

The actress, 58, who played Heather Trot on the BBC soap, appeared on Loose Women on Wednesday where she discussed the moment she was diagnosed back in 2015, after going public with her secret health battle last week. 

Only last year, Cheryl was given the all clear. 

Cheryl revealed the huge gesture her friend Dame Barbara, who was the iconic Peggy Mitchell on EastEnders, did to help her out before she passed away in 2020. 

Cheryl told the panel: 'Barbara Windsor and Paul O'Grady all helped me. 

'I remember Barbs saying: "Come on you've got to come round my house". So I went there and to the toilet. 

'I explained everything that was going on and I was going to have my operation very soon. Her husband Scott got his checkbook out.

'She went: "So how much are your bills then?" She wrote a cheque out to help me pay for my medical bills and my mortgage.'

Barbara passed away after a seven year battle with Alzheimer's age 83, with her devoted husband Scott Mitchell by her side, 61, after becoming her carer in her final years.

Speaking about why she finally decided to go public with her health battle, she said:  'I kept it quiet for a long time to process it. If you don't work you earn no money so I had to put on a smile and get on with it. 

'For me it's about letting women know they should listen to their bodies.

'We don't have time for ourselves. When something happens you need to act on it. I wouldn't have been alive if I hadn't taken action.'

Cheryl, whose husband Yassim al-Jemoni and son Alex, 24, were in the live studio audience, revealed her symptoms began when she started experience backache. Worried, she went to the doctors. 

She said: 'I got back ache and spotting and it didn't feel right. Then they told me I had stage three cancer. Go to the doctor because you know yourself and it saves lives.'

Cheryl went public with her health battle last week. She told Ok! Magazine: 'There were some dark moments, especially at night, when I thought, 'Am I going to die? Am I going to leave my husband without a wife, my son without a mum?'

'But the time is right to talk about it all now. I'm hoping my story might empower other women.

'I've been through a lot but I'm still here. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' 

She received her diagnosis after attending a regular smear test, which came back clear.

But after she started experiencing back pain and spotting blood which she knew wasn't normal.

She then went to see her GP and she was referred for tests and a biopsy at a local hospital in Kent.

Four months after that she received the news she had stage two womb cancer.

Cheryl has now told how hearing the doctor's diagnosis was like an 'out of body experience'. 

She said: 'I was in absolute shock; stunned to the core. I couldn't believe the doctor was talking about me.'

Following X-rays, Cheryl was also recommended for a full hysterectomy just weeks later. 

She told how this hit her hard in case she had wanted to have another child - after her chances of doing so were

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