Samantha Womack backs nurses’ strike even if affects her cancer treatment

EastEnders star Samantha Womack has said she backs the nurses’ strike even if it affects her cancer treatment because she feels they have to “fight back”.

The 50-year-old actress recently announced that she has overcome breast cancer five months after announcing her diagnosis in August following the death of Dame Olivia Newton-John.

The Grease star became a prominent breast cancer campaigner after being given the first of three cancer diagnoses in 1992.

Womack, who has undergone surgery and chemotherapy treatment, is now urging women and men of all ages to check themselves regularly.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday, she spoke of the “fantastic” care she has received from NHS nurses and why she is supporting them taking industrial action.

“At the moment, I haven’t had any appointments disrupted, but I have to say I am a huge advocate of the work that nurses do,” she said.

“They’ve looked after me so fantastically, and I really do feel that they should be paid appropriately.

“Even at the cost of my own treatment being disrupted, I feel like they have to fight back.

“They’re doing such an incredible job and not being treated fairly.”

The actress revealed she received her breast cancer diagnosis after getting a “random check” in between performances when an ultrasound showed a “nasty kind of gremlin-type shadow” which prompted further appointments.

Speaking of the importance of self-checking for signs of breast cancer, she said: “Obviously that word cancer, it kind of sends tremors through you and your family’s psyche, but actually the minute you start on that journey you are just surrounded by people who have been on a similar journey.

“Lots of people were reaching out to me on social media. Hundreds and hundreds of women and men – it’s important to say that men get breast cancer too.

“But the shocking thing is actually women should be checking themselves in their 20s and 30s. There is a huge amount of women that contacted me to pass that message on, that if you can check yourself earlier…

“It’s not just something that affects women of a certain age, it’s actually men and women, so any checks you can do could be lifesaving.

“Mine was a random check and I got it very, very early so I’m really lucky, and I never check myself. I’ve just been so strong most of my life so I was really fortunate that I just happened to do that when I did.”

Womack said her first round of chemotherapy “wasn’t pleasant” but that she “didn’t react terribly” and that using a cold cap throughout the process helped her keep her hair.

She added: “I will continue to have some treatments and take medication to make sure there’s no recurrence and certainly the term ‘cancer-free’ is a bit misleading.

“I think, luckily, I’ve got it gone for now, but with cancer, you have to be careful that you’re keeping on top of everything and keep checking yourself to make sure it doesn’t come back.”

– The actress is playing the White Witch in a production of CS Lewis’s classic, The Lion, the Witch And The Wardrobe, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End until January 8.