Former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has been spotted out and about after suffering a stroke.
Beloved by soap fans for playing the perennially unlucky but always loveable Heather Trott, Cheryl was struck down with the illness this May, and has recently spoken about the moment her ‘world was rocked’.
Cheryl described the initial symptom as ‘a really bad headache at the back of my head’.
‘I went to bed but couldn’t settle. When I got up in the night to go to the bathroom, my balance completely went and I had to stop myself from falling over.
She added to the Mirror: ‘My whole right side felt numb, heavy and tingly.’
Worried, Chery contacted her son, Alex, who ‘recognised the symptoms’ and phoned an ambulance.
After being rushed to a hospital in Blackpool, doctors confirmed that she’d suffered a stroke.
The illness completely debilitated Cheryl. Describing the process following the stroke, she said: ‘one of the hardest things is to process what it does to you.
‘One minute you’re walking, talking, going to the shops; the next your world is rocked. It’s shocking.’
‘I have had to retrain my brain. I couldn’t even pick up a penny at first,’ Cheryl continued.
‘You lose the ability to coordinate your hands, to walk properly, your balance is gone. It’s frustrating and makes you angry. But I’ve started to recover; I am coming on in leaps and bounds now.’
Following this moving conversation, Cheryl has now been seen pottering about in Blackpool. She is wearing a blue jumpsuit and also holding a walking stick, helping with balance.
While shopping, Cheryl was joined by Alex, who also helps to care for his mum.
The soap star has been incredibly open and honest about the life she has lived while filming as Heather Trott, and after.
She previously revealed that the late Dame Barbara Windsor, perhaps the ultimate EastEnders icon, helped her out financially.
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‘I went to the toilet and I’d explained everything was going on and I was going to have my operation very soon,’ she explained.
‘I came back and Scott [Barbara Windsor’s husband] was there with a chequebook and she went, ‘right, how much are your bills then?’ and she literally wrote a cheque out to help me pay my bills and my mortgage.’
‘I just remember, just weeping, and you have people like this and people don’t know the generosity of people and what they do, it’s amazing. I’m forever grateful.’
