Former Emmerdale icon Leah Bracknell has shared a heartbreaking poem as she continues to battle cancer.
The actress, who is best known for playing Zoe Tate for 16 years in the soap, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in October last year.
In the emotional message shared on her Facebook page Leah said she wants the pain to go away.
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Alongside a drawing the poem – that Leah is thought to have written herself – read: “I got me a butterfly net to catch me all the love and beauty and wishes and dreams and black cat kinda luck.
“And fire in my belly, honey in my heart kind of memories that melt my sweet heart.
“And take away the pain.
“I spy me a sky full of blessings coming my way.
“Net at the ready, I raise my head for a kiss.
“And here they come.”
This comes a month after she posted a picture of herself looking frailer, but still beaming with a smile.
Leah, 53, announced the heartbreaking news that she has cancer last year.
She released a statement saying: “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.
“I was subsequently given an emergency procedure to remove a large amount of fluid from around my heart.”
She continued: “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!”
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Her diagnosis led to a massive fund-raising campaign via a GoFundMe page where Leah was able to raise over £60,000 to pay for life prolonging treatment with the help of her fans.
Earlier this year the star bravely opened up about the illness on ITV’s Loose Women.
She admitted the treatment isn’t great and will “stop working at some point”.
Speaking to the Loose ladies on her condition, she said: “It’s not great. The medication will stop working at some point, and that’s when I have to think again.”
She told the panellists that she doesn’t want to know when she could die.
Leah explained: “I didn’t want doctors to “guess-timate” how long I have left.
“I don’t wake up every morning feeling fearful – I wake up feeling grateful and excited about life.”
The star explained that cancer changed her outlook on life too.
“All the things that you used to worry about, it just goes… I haven’t got the energy to deal with that and I am going to appreciate the good stuff,” she said.
She added: “I feel calm 80% of the time.
“I am not going to lie. Don’t think this is how it is a lot of the time.”
“A lot of work that I have done in the past with shamanic yoga practice… I have a head start. I am lucky that I have tools that I can call upon, that I have less fear about it.
“The more I can build a relationship with the cancer rather than fear it.”
The yoga guru has her own blog titled ‘Something beginning with C’ to help her on her journey.