'I'VE GOT TO BE BRAVE - THE TREATMENT IS THERE TO SAVE MY LIFE'

REVEALING SHE HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH STAGE THREE BREAST CANCER, FORMER EMMERDALE ACTRESS MALANDRA BURROWS OPENS UP TO OK! ABOUT UNDERGOING GRUELLING CHEMOTHERAPY AND HER NEW OUTLOOK ON LIFE

- KIRSTY HATCHER

When we sit down with Malandra Burrows, we're expecting a chat filled with emotion and sadness after all, she's revealing the devastating news that she has stage three cancer and had major surgery just a week earlier to remove a tumour from her left breast.

But it soon becomes clear that the former Emmerdale actress isn't going to take her diagnosis lying down, and cancer has a fight on its hands.

"I've kind of gone into combat mode," she tells us. "If I look back, I've given it everything I can and that's all I can do. I hate to say it, but when it's your life at stake you're prepared to do everything to get through. That's helped me focus."

Malandra, 56, was diagnosed in February after finding a lump a month earlier, and has chosen to share her story with OK! to help raise awareness and encourage other women to get checked out.

"You may think you're super healthy, but that little 'C' word can still get you," she says. "I just happened to catch myself [while exercising] and thought, 'Good grief, what's that?'"

At first she didn't think it was anything to worry about. "I thought it must be a gland, but a few days later it was still there, so I rang my GP and they asked if I could come in the next hour," she explains. "A week later I was at the hospital and the first consultant told me it was a cyst. He said, 'I won't be seeing you again.' The relief I felt!"

Malandra pauses for a moment, perhaps to relive that moment of ease. She then explains how a follow-up scan and ultrasound showed something that was a lot more sinister.