Danniella Westbrook has revealed that she’s battling cancer, the same disease that killed her pal Jade Goody back in 2009.
The former EastEnders actress has been diagnosed with womb cancer, and will have a hysterectomy in three weeks.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, the 44-year-old said: “I’ve always said I am not scared of dying. But when the doctor said, ‘You have cancer’, straight away my thoughts turned to Jade and that I don’t want to die. I know I need to fight.”
“After what happened with Jade I was frightened to talk to anyone about my cancer at first. She was my friend and what happened was so awful.”
“There is part of me that thinks I would rather just be ill and not know about it – to just get on with life.
“But then I thought about the kids and I thought that is a selfish way to be. I’ve tried to commit suicide before but getting this diagnosis has made me realise I don’t want to die.
“I want to live and sort out my health. I know I have to fight, I know I have to get up and battle it,” she explained.
“The doctors say they believe it is containable so I’m hopeful. My mum had the same cancer when I was 15. I’m 44 now and she is still here.
“Her treatment was on the NHS and it worked. They are taking me in in three weeks for a full hysterectomy. Before they take it out they won’t know to what extent the cancer has grown.”
The actress first noticed something was wrong about a year-and-a-half ago, when she was in Spain.
She explained: “I was getting bad periods. I thought I was going through the menopause because of all my body has been through. I had always had miscarriages and my body suffered. I went to the doctor in Spain and she said, ‘You are anaemic, you are fine’.
“But I came back at Christmas last year and I was so ill. I was bleeding badly. I came on my period and it lasted six weeks.
“It was a heavy period to the point where I was walking along and I would get a pain and then come on my period. I was losing clots of blood. I was changing my clothes six times a day, having to shower all the time because there was so much blood.”
After visiting a private doctor, Daniella was told that she was pregnant.
She said: “The doctor said, ‘Your PH levels are so high you are pregnant’. I said, ‘I’m not pregnant. Something is seriously wrong here’. I told them, ‘I’ve got womb cancer in my family’.
“But he wasn’t having any of it and wanted £1k for another scan. He couldn’t find anything.”
The bleeding subsided for a while, but then in July, Daniella collapsed in the shower, but managed to call her close pal Kerry Katona, who drove her to hospital.
Danniella revealed: “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 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 about her addiction’.
“They then kept me in overnight under the mental health act. But they didn’t treat me for what I was coming in for.”
After returning to Spain, Danniella visited her doctor in San Pedro.
She said: “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. 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’m having a hysterectomy.”
Danniella Westbrook diagnosed with same cancer that killed her friend Jade Goody https://t.co/WBAJR3VKgp big thank you for such a sensitive article ❤️
— Danniella Westbrook (@westbrookdanni) September 22, 2018
“I know my mum got fantastic treatment at the Royal London years ago so I wanted to get my treatment by the NHS.”
Daniella also admitted that she didn’t take the news well at first, turning to booze and cocaine on a two-day bender.
She said: “I went to Benidorm and then went to Marbella and got very drunk. I used cocaine, it’s the first thing I would pick up because I wanted to numb everything and get drunk. I got through two grams over two days.
“I shouldn’t have done it and it’s not right, there is no excuse to take Class A drugs. At the end of the day I realise I am an addict and I was despairing.
“I told Kai, my son, I was doing it and he said, ‘Mum, you need to come home now. This is a big deal’.”
