Defiant former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell is determined to give her terminal cancer the slip for as long as possible – and believes her positivity has helped keep alive for years longer than doctors predicted.
The Zoe Tate actress was given just months to live when she was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable lung cancer following a critical op to drain fluid from around her heart in 2016.
But Leah, 55, refused to accept the terrible forecast for her future in order to set an example for daughters Maya and Lily, and is now hoping an immunotherapy clinical trial – which has stabilised her condition – could bring about a cure.
Leah recognises some observers may consider her positive thinking as “crazy” – but she still hopes for an “impossible miracle”.
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She also told the Mirror she would be making the most of the rest of her life anyway, come what may.
However, the yoga devotee and shamanic healer does not intend to tick off a bucket list, preferring to occupy herself with exactly what she wants to do while she is capable – and not live in fear of her illness.
“Medical science is an amazing thing and it is keeping me alive, but it has limitations because it is to do with the logical mind,” Leah is reported to have said.
“But things we call miracles, things we don’t understand, happen all the time, they happen outside the realms of logic and scientific data.
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“Nobody knows why they happen, but it is possible for the impossible to happen. I still hope I could get my impossible miracle.”
Leah recently insisted she is not a victim of her illness, preferring to define herself as a “rebel”.
She wrote in her blog: “I rebel against the fear of cancer, against pity from others and myself, against being defined by cancer, and against being bullied by cancer.”
However, she also admitted that the odds are against her, adding: “Time is running out. I reject the expected notion of being passive or a patient or of being a victim, and I am prepared to try almost anything to ‘save’ my life.”
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