Hollyoaks star Nikki Sanderson has posted a tribute to her friend Hayley Read who has passed away following a battle with motor neurone disease.
In a case of life imitating art, Nikki was part of a huge storyline where her on-screen husband, Patrick Blake, was also diagnosed with the condition.
Off-screen, Nikki has been dealing with very similar emotions to those her character went through as she supported close friend Hayley through the illness.
And on Monday, the actress posted a picture of Hayley’s funeral programme, revealing the actress and playwright had died.
Alongside the gorgeous photo of Hayley, Nikki wrote: “Today we say our final farewells to the wonderful Lady Hayley Read.
“Thank you my old bint for being someone who I could love, look up to and generally take the [mick] out of.
“You were the most amazing woman and I will love you forever. I’m sure you’re in heaven keeping everyone entertained with your bonkers sense of humour and absolute ridiculousness…
“I’ll try to keep that going down here with the other old bint and the boys Love you xxxx.”
In June Nikki put on a selection of Hayley’s plays and all the money raised was donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
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After the event she posted a picture of herself with Hayley, before her friend got very sick, saying what a success the evening had been.
She wrote: “Soooo last night was amazing!! We celebrated the works of this lovely lady, the wonderful @hayley.read. Everyone involved in the show were truly incredible […]
“The lovely Lady Read partied from her hospice bed watching us all bring her work to life!! I love you my old bint…. I hope we made you proud.”
Earlier this year Nikki appeared on Lorraine alongside her mum, Jude, to talk about Hayley’s fight.
Hayley was first diagnosed in June last year, but the symptoms had been showing before that. Nikki explained:
“Hayley was a performer, she was very vibrant very charismatic, and the first thing we noticed was her speech was slurring, but a year before Hayley had had a brain haemorrhage.
“Fortunately her son found her and got her help really quickly and she recovered. They put a coil in her brain, so we presumed the speech was something to do with the coil maybe slipping or something.”
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Nikki also went on to reveal she would laugh at Hayley at times before they knew what was altering her behaviour so severely.
“I remember I would laugh at her because we would be talking just as we are now, and then she’d burst out crying and sobbing. Or she’d just start laughing at really inappropriate times.
“I would say: ‘What are you doing? Why are you being weird?’ That was actually a sign but we didn’t know it at the time.”
Lorraine said: “The cruelty of it is that her brain is fine, she can’t move now, I believe.”
“No, she’s immobile,” Nikki added.
“But with her brain functioning normally, she’s “still Hayley” and is aware of everything that’s going on around her.”
Sadly, she’s now lost her fight. Our thoughts are with Nikki and Hayley’s family.