Former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell has revealed she is battling terminal lung cancer.
The 52-year-old actress, who played Zoe Tate in the show for 16 years from 1989 to 2005, and her partner Jez Hughes are raising money to send her for treatment in Germany.
The mother-of-two has been working as a yoga instructor in recent years but is well-known for her Emmerdale storylines.
These included raising awareness of LGBT issues after her character was cast as a lesbian and later her portrayal of suffering a schizophrenic breakdown.
In her fundraising appeal, Bracknell wrote: "Just over 5 weeks ago, I was feeling perfectly well, fit and healthy. Teaching yoga classes and workshops, it was a time of new beginnings: preparing to move house, youngest child fleeing the nest, and excited to be starting rehearsals for a comedy play, being back onstage, going on tour.
"But, it turns out that the universe had other plans. Life was about to be unexpectedly turned on its head.
"I began to feel breathless climbing stairs ... I just put it down to a bit of stress. My abdomen suddenly ballooned - and within a matter of a few days I looked heavily pregnant. I could barely walk or breathe. Then, one Saturday night at the beginning of September I ended up in A&E."
The actress said that she had had an emergency procedure to remove excess fluid from around her heart.
"However, the bad news is that I have been diagnosed with lung cancer, stage 4. In their opinion, that means it's terminal, not curable, not operable.
"A fairly brutal and bleak diagnosis but one I am determined to challenge and see from the perspective of "a glass half full", going against a lifetime of pessimism, negativity and fear!!!!
"By the way, please imagine me writing this and speaking in quite an upbeat and cheerful voice. Do NOT imagine me sitting here writing through a veil of tears. I am not. Or feeling sorry for myself. I am not (yet)."
She added: "My priority is getting well and strong, so that I can continue to endeavour to be a good, mother, daughter, wife, or at least the best I can be.
"My priority is to defy expectation. My priority is to love, to laugh, and, as Bob (Dylan) said, to 'keep on keepin' on'."
