Former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016, has lashed out at people who ask her, “So, what’s your prognosis?”
Writing on her blog, she says that such a question is tantamount to asking her, “How long do you have to live? How long before you might die?”
She says that she knows people’s enquiries are well-meaning, but they have an unfortunate effect on her: “It royally [bleeps!] me off!”
The actress, who played Zoe Tate in Emmerdale, continues: “If I had a pound for every time someone asked that question, well, I could probably fund a feet-up, rub-down weekend at Champneys,” she says.
Leah explains that she has made a conscious decision not to ask her oncologist his “prognosis as to my impending mortality” – and she would therefore thank other people in turn not to ask her.
“I think the question lacks sensitivity, compassion and understanding,” she says. “It isn’t a casual question. It is profoundly personal, intimate and private.
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“I am quite convinced that you don’t mean offence. But it is deeply painful to hear. Please, please could you maybe be a bit more mindful if ever that question forms in your brain, and not let it escape your mouth,” she adds.
“It might just be a passing question, or even a genuinely concerned question, but please think, engage your brain, and remember that there is someone who, despite looking absolutely bloody gorgeous on the outside is actually doing their damnedest to keep on keeping on.”
After her diagnosis, Leah found out there was no way of treating her disease in Britain, so her partner, Jez, launched a crowdfunding page to send her to a clinic in Germany.
However, she then discovered her Chinese genes made it possible for her to qualify for a clinical trial in the UK, which she started on at the end of 2016. Sadly, this was not successful and was abandoned.
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Leah has since pursued various alternative treatments, which she says have included “journeying to connect with spiritual helpers and ancestors, visualisations, meditation, breathing exercises, yoga practices, and allow[ing] my creative juices to flow”.
She has not retreated from public view, and recently hosted an evening in London: “Cancer and the Art of Living: An Evening with Leah Bracknell.”