Barbara Windsor's former EastEnders co-star Rita Simons has revealed that the actress "still has a laugh" and has "some really good days" since being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Scott Mitchell, Windsor's husband of 18 years, revealed that she was suffering from the disease last May.
Simons, who played Windsor's TV niece Roxy Mitchell on EastEnders, says that the actress is coping well.
She told The Mirror newspaper: "Just because she's got this terrible disease doesn't mean she's locked up in her flat all the time.
"She still has a laugh – she just has to factor this in as part of her life. She's been having some really good days."
Simons added that Windsor's husband has been "wonderful" and that she would be "lost" without him.
"She's got Scott, who is amazing," she said. "That is commitment.
"Without Scott, Barbara would be lost. He's the most wonderful husband to her."
Simons said that she and her former on-screen sister Samantha Womack, who played Ronnie Mitchell, are planning to visit Windsor at home soon.
"Me and Sam Womack are going to go and see her now I've finished Legally Blonde," she said. "I haven't seen Barbara since panto last year when she came to see me.
"That was when I realised – it was the first time I saw first hand that she wasn't well."
Simons made her exit from EastEnders along with Womack at the end of 2016 when Roxy and Ronnie drowned tragically in a swimming pool accident on New Year's Eve.
Windsor last appeared in EastEnders in May 2016 when Peggy Mitchell died after refusing treatment for cancer.
