Leah Bracknell, who played Zoe Tate in Emmerdale from 1989 until 2006, has been living with incurable lung cancer since discovering her illness two years ago.
In her most recent Instagram post, the former soap star appeared to share some hope with her fans as she continues to battle the disease.
The 45-year-old posted a picture of an owl statue sitting on top of a huge tree, peering towards her.
She captioned it: “Someone’s watching over us.”
Leah also shared an image of a quote which read: “Plants and animals, earth, water, fire and air – the whole of Mother Earth – belong to the wonder of Nurturing Source Reality, and your birthright is to feel this sacred connection within every cell of your body, within every movement of your breath.”
Some of her 1,008 followers commented on the post to send the star “love” amid her cancer battle.
One person wrote: “Mother Nature is truly a wonderful thing. Sending love Leah.”
“Love this Leah,” said another.
A third added: “Love this Ali, sending you love. Same to Jez too x x.”
Leah has spoken openly about her battle with terminal lung cancer via her blog, Something Beginning With C.
In her most recent post, published in October, Leah had some “positive news” to share.
The former soap star discussed how she has been coping with stage four cancer and said the cancer is stable.
She wrote: “Last week, the long-awaited scan results from the first phase of the trial I am on, have come back with the encouraging news that, currently, the cancer is stable.
“The celebration is muted, one of relief rather than champagne and fireworks.
“But it is without doubt the most positive news to come my way in almost a year.”
Leah went on to explain she will remain on the trial for the treatment and said she now has “hope”.
She continued: “So what does this mean? Quite simply it means hope.
“It means that I can remain on the trial for now, until the next scan is performed in six weeks’ time, and the cycle of anxiety once again cranks into motion and I brace myself for the frightening possibility of the tug of the rug from beneath my feet.”
Leah also revealed she has been using homemade cannabis oil as part of her treatment.
“I decided to integrate plant medicine into my healing programme, and I began to use cannabis oil high in THC medicinally from the day I left the hospital two years ago,” she wrote.